Age of Empires IV – Update 9.1.109

New! Fireside Festivities Event

Ranked Season Updates

Season Five is coming to a close and Ranked Season Six is right on its tail!

Season Five will end on November 13^th at 11:59pm PT (Nov 14th at 07:59 UTC). For the first time, rewards will be delivered based on the highest rank achieved throughout the season! Be sure to visit your profile page in-game after the season has ended to claim your rewards! 

But don’t rest on your laurels too long! Season Six begins on November 15^th at 10:00am PT (18:00 UTC). Charge into the fray to earn new rewards and climb the ladder to victory! Season Six runs until March 13^th at 11:59pm PT (March 14^th at 06:59 UTC). 

Map Pool Rotation

A new Ranked Season means a fresh change of the map pool, and we have some special treats in store! 

First, this update includes 3 new maps which are immediately debuting on the roster – Canal, Gorge, and Rocky River – more about these new maps further on in the Build Spotlight section. 

Additionally, we have 4 new maps joining the pool from The Sultans Ascend expansion! While these maps will normally be exclusive to owners of the expansion, all players will be able to preview these maps for a limited time through playing in Ranked matches! Check them out before the next map rotation! 

More information about the maps available with The Sultans Ascend can be found on our blog (The Sultans Ascend: Everything in the Expansion). It is our intention to routinely preview expansion-exclusive maps through the Ranked play map pool rotations, so that all players have an opportunity to experience some of the expansion’s additional content. 

Season Six changes to the map pool take effect on November 15^th at 10am PT (18:00 UTC)! 

Quick Match Changes 

• The number of downvotes for maps in Quick Match has increased from 7 to 15. 
• Empire Wars is now selectable as a game mode for Quick Match. 

1v1 Ranked Map Pool 

• Arabia 
• Canal (NEW!) 
• Cliffside (Expansion Preview!) 
• Golden Heights 
• Golden Pit (Expansion Preview!) 
• Gorge (NEW!) 
• Hidden Valley (Expansion Preview!) 
• Himeyama (Expansion Preview!) 
• Rocky River (NEW!) 

Team Ranked Map Pool 

• Arabia 
• Cliffside (Expansion Preview!) 
• Golden Heights 
• Golden Pit (Expansion Preview!) 
• Gorge (NEW!) 
• Hidden Valley (Expansion Preview!) 
• Hideout 
• Himeyama (Expansion Preview!) 
• Volcanic Island 

Empire Wars in Quick Match

By popular demand, the Empire Wars game mode is now available as an option in Quick Match! Enjoy the early-game head-start provided by Empire Wars to launch into a fast-paced mid-game; now it is easier than ever to queue-up and play! 

New Maps!

Canal 

A wide canal stretches from base to base through a fertile land, carving a path for both resources and aggression. 

Gorge 

Nothing but an open land separates you from your enemies in the gorge. Above the gorge to the side of the mountain are small forests and plenty of resources awaiting those daring to branch off the central battle. 

Rocky River 

New life emerges from the dying remains of a once great river, stretching low across a valley between opposing factions. 

Mega Walls Update

Walls are now simpler and easier to place and utilize by players. From improvements such as better Villager building logic and construction UI, to completely new features such as linking to allied walls and a functional overhaul to gates – how you lay out your base and defend your civilization will be forever changed! Read more about these updates in the Balance & Bugfixes section below. 

Town Bell

Ding Ding! Now available at the Town Center; ring the Town Bell to call all nearby Villagers back to safety with the press of a single button. The Town Bell is fully compatible with Seek Shelter and both methods of garrisoning Villagers share the same return to work hotkeys. 

Landmark and Wonder Resizing

We have increased the visual size of several Landmarks and Wonders to be more visually appealing. This is purely a visual change and impacted buildings still take up the same amount of build-space. 

Mods & Content Editor

• Added a progress bar to the UI for the “Finalizing Publish” phase. 
• Fixed an issue where the Content Editor would crash after removing an Enum entry. 

AI Updates (General)

• AI now uses a control influence map to better determine which areas of the map are controlled versus contested. 
• AI will no longer send its Monks to pick up relics behind enemy walls. 
• Reduced situations when AI Villagers go idle when there are still resources to gather. 
• Improved AI Villager’s decision making on what resources to gather reducing amount of unnecessary resource reassignments. 
• Fixed AI sometimes refusing to gather from deposits near its base if those deposits are in relative proximity to the starting position of a non-AI player. 
• AI no longer sends too many Villagers to gather from the same animal. 
• Improved AI farm placement logic so that that are placed more optimally around drop off locations. 
• Fixed an issue where the AI would build too many Lumber Camps on some maps. 
• Fixed AI sometimes building multiple copies of a building that it needs only one of. 
• AI will now build markets in optimal areas, if possible, for maximum trade efficiency. 
• Fixed AI Town Centers sometimes losing their ability to produce units after being destroyed and repaired. 
• AI now considers the amount of resources their allies have before sending villagers to help with repairing allied structures. They should try to help only if necessary. 
• Fixed AI sometimes refusing to build new dropoff locations during the late-game causing long-distance resource harvesting. 

AI Offensive Behavior Updates

• Updated AI military targeting priorities: 
  • AI units will try to finish off low health targets more reliably. 
  • AI units will try to target units they do bonus damage against when possible. 
  • Fixed several issues with the AI attacking buildings instead of fighting nearby enemies.  
  • Fixed several issues with the AI targeting units with anti-building siege instead of targeting key buildings like keeps or landmarks. 

Developer’s Note: Melee units will still rely on attack move to engage with nearby enemies but try to switch focus if they can attack a better target, while ranged units will more readily switch targets.  

Developer’s Note: Sometimes the AI will still choose to destroy economic/production buildings instead of going for Landmarks if its goal is to weaken the enemy. We know that there is still room for improvement in terms of deciding when to just go for the win. 

• The AI will no longer use trebuchets to hunt boars. 
• AI will now better protect its ranged siege weapons while attacking. 
• AI will now engage dangerous enemy buildings enroute to their planned target. 
• Fixed an issue where the AI sometimes fails to respond when being attacked on the way to its planned destination. 
• AI Scouts will now prioritize dropping off larger amounts of herded sheep before venturing into enemy territory. 
• The AI now scouts the map more efficiently. 

AI Defensive Behavior Updates

• AI will now plan and build an air-tight Wall when it’s feeling defensive, and fill gaps created by gathered resources. 
• AI will no longer build encircling walls around cross-map economic expansions. 
• Improved AI base building logic in the early game making it build structures in a more safe and compact way. 
• AI will no longer pull military units away from base to defend an ally far away. 
• Fixed AI Villagers abandoning their Landmark Town Center construction site when attacked by a human player during the early stages of a Nomad game. 
• Fixed a bug during late skirmish games that would sometimes cause AI armies to get stuck prioritizing defense and become unresponsive to enemy attacks. 
• Improved AI Fallback behavior such that it now tries to search for a better safe position instead of blindly going back to their Landmark Town Center even if it was already destroyed. 
• AI Villagers are now smarter when selecting a target to repair, if they decide to repair a distant structure, they now try to take a safer route. 

AI Civilization-Specific Updates

• Mongol AI will no longer delete their Landmark Town Center when their start position is too close to an enemy. 
• Mongol AI now will only relocate buildings that make sense when its Ovoo is destroyed. 

Art of War

• Replaced the Ghulam in the first wave of “Advanced Combat” with a regular Man-At-Arms variant.   
• Fixed a bug in the Ottoman Art of War mission where the player was getting too many Janissaries if they chose the Janissary Company Vizier Bonus. 
• Fixed elephant animations in the Malian Art of War opening narrative. 

Campaign (All Platforms)

• Resolved an issue in the Campaign Mission “The Siege of Kiev” where there wasn’t enough room near small stone deposits to place Ovoos. 
• The Lumber Preservation technology can now only be researched once during Campaign Missions. 
• Fixed various issues with loading from an autosave during the “Ugra River” Campaign Mission. 

• Campaign narrative VO now pauses when the game is paused and returns when the game is un-paused. Previously, pausing would allow the currently playing VO to continue to play in the background, creating potential for missed information. 
• Fixed an issue where auras did not always apply correctly after loading a saved game. 
• Fixed an issue where the Play Button on campaign load screens would cut-off text in some localizations and screen resolution combinations. The text will now scroll to the left instead of being cut-off. 
• Fixed a typo in the timeline while loading into the Campaign Mission “Hold against the Horde.” 
• Campaign timeline now has checkmarks next to completed missions. 
• Added animation to the timelines on the Campaign loading screen and post-mission screen. 
• Increased the maximum display length for gameplay tips on the Campaign loading screen.

Campaign (Console Only)

• Fixed an issue with the Auto Villager creation failing to work on consoles for the campaign missions “1514, Moscow versus Lithuania” in The Rise of Moscow, and “1105, The Fall of Bayeux” in The Normans Campaign. 

Caster / Observer Mode

• Replaced Sacred Sites banner with the one used in gameplay.   
• Fixed an issue in Caster Mode to ensure the sheep count icon is displayed in the UI. 
• Fixed an issue in Observer Mode where the UI sometimes did not properly reflect current resources. 

Challenges

• Fixed an issue on console where Quick Matches were not counting towards the “Win Any” Daily Challenge. 

Empire Wars

• Empire Wars is now selectable as a game mode for Quick Match. 
• Fixed an issue where the French civilization did not receive their unique civilization bonus for free melee attack technologies upon Age up. 

Hotkeys

• Added Landmark hotkeys when selecting an Age up option from the menu. These hotkeys are also remappable.   
• New hotkey rebinds available for field production of Siege Towers and Battering Rams for all relevant units for all civilizations. 
• Corrected an issue where Springald Crews and Swivel Cannons technologies were missing Hotkeys on Docks. 

• Battering Ram production hotkey for the Ottomans Mehmed Imperial Academy Landmark is now fully remappable. 
• Hotkeys for Stone Walls, Stone Wall Towers, and Stone Wall Gates can now be remapped for the Rus civilization. 
• Select All Monasteries Hotkeys no longer select Outposts, Keeps, Towers, and Docks for the Holy Roman Empire civilization. 
• Hotkey added for the Holy Inspiration ability used by the Holy Roman Empire civilization. 

Masteries

• Fixed a bug that prevented completion of the Chinese Mastery “Path of the Spirit.” 
• The description of the Malian Mastery “Grazing Herds” now makes clear you can earn Food from any number of Cattle Ranches. 
• Fixed a typo in the tooltip for the Ottomans Mastery “Test of Strength 1.” 
• Added animation to the timelines on the Masteries loading screen and post-mission screen. 
• Fixed a bug where the Delhi Sultanate mastery “Stone Construction” did not accurately track stone costs. 

UX/UI & Menus (All Platforms)

• Changed the logic used by the minimap so that enemy units are layered on top of allied units. 
• Fixed an issue where some transparent areas of the UI near the minimap could not be clicked past. 
• Fixed a visual flickering issue that could occur with Sacred Site control zones. 
• Fixed an issue where team colors appeared incorrectly when the graphics setting of Low was selected. 
• The UI Narrator will now name the player’s color selection within Lobbies. 
• Fixed an issue where the selection box would remain on screen after removing units from a control group. 
• Unique abilities for civilizations now have a purple highlight background. 
• Villager count on resources is now aligned vertically with the Idle Villagers count above it in the UI. 
• Player match statistics now properly report the number of custom games played and won. 
• Fixed an issue where players appear in Offline Friends bar when they’re Online. 

• Fixed a display issue in the history tab for skirmish matches that have been save-loaded. 
• Fixed an issue in Dutch localization where the Tech Tree tooltips were cut-off. 
• Tooltips were added to several dropdown options within the Settings menu. 
• An ellipsis will now appear in Tooltips when certain words are longer than the Tooltip box when viewing game menus in certain combinations of screen resolutions and localizations. 
• Fixed some crashes related to Voice Chat. 
• Disabling and re-enabling Voice Chat while within a Lobby is now properly reflected in a player’s Voice Chat Status. 
• Fixed an issue where click sounds would play when clicking various non-interactable sections of the match lobby. 
• Fixed a performance issue when browsing custom/observer lobbies. 
• Fixed an issue where team numbers were truncated in the lobby selection dropdown in certain combinations of languages and screen resolution sizes. 
• Players in a custom lobby will no longer be required to download multiple map mods if the host changes map selection multiple times. 

Developer’s Note: Players will only need to consent to download the final modded map selection by the host. 

• Fixed a visual issue with text highlighting in Mod Download Consent pop-ups when attempting to observe a modded match. 
• Fixed an issue with Mod Tooltips that split long words into multiple lines unnecessarily, resulting in long, thin, and unreadable Tooltips. 
• Fixed a bug that prevented the credits from scrolling on subsequent viewings of the credits. 
• Fixed a crash that could happen on Xbox and Windows Store versions when playing multiplayer games with Voice Chat enabled. 
• Expanded list of graphics cards the game can detect and set appropriate default settings for. 

Console UX/UI & Menus

• The quick find menu option “Find Warships” on console has been replaced with “Find All Navy Military.” 
• The Rally Point tooltip when using a controller on console has an updated description. 
• The Age Up icon in the Villager Radial Menu on console should now consistently display the correct icon.  
• Players on console can no longer attempt to invite a friend to join a Skirmish match. 
• Fixed an issue where the radial menu would fail to open on consoles if RT was pressed too soon after selecting a unit. 

• Fixed an issue on console where a player was unable to navigate through menus after returning to the main menu after a ranked match. 
• Players on console can no longer attempt to invite a friend to a lobby while in the Ranked or Quick Match queues. 
• Passive buff icons and unit modifiers will now display on the unit selection card on console without needing to open the radial menu. 
• Fixed an issue on console where resuming the game from suspend could cause a crash. 
• Fixed an issue where the Villager Priority System on console was resetting to default values after loading from a saved game. 
• Fixed an issue on console to ensure Highest Rank achieved during the season is displayed as the correct Badge and name in the Season Complete dialog. 

General Map Changes

• Players starting resources generate in a more consistent distance from their Landmark Town Center across all ranked maps.  

Developer’s Note: The new distribution aims to eliminate instances where one player gets their gold safe inside their Town Center’s firing range while another player does not. 

• It is no longer possible to forcibly tunnel through woodlines by chopping trees and moving past them. Chopped trees now keep the same movement blockers as when they are part of a woodline, and only once they are fully harvested do they allow for movement to reach the trees behind them.   
• Felled trees in dense forests are easier to select in Mediterranean, Asian Subtropical, Asian Temperate, and Gobi Desert biomes. 
• Fixed a bug where the lobby host had a disproportional chance to spawn in a pocket position on maps where players spawn in a ring, rather than spawn in the intended random position. 
• Fixed a visual issue with the golden map border. 
• Fixed an issue where dense forests would sometimes block vision even after being fully harvested. 
• Fixed a bug in the Skirmish preset “Threatening the West” where the generated map was too small. 

Map-Specific Changes

Black Forest 

• Fixed an issue on Black Forest where the starting stone deposit would sometimes not spawn for a player. 
• Reduced players’ starting stone deposit from large to small on Black Forest. 

Boulder Bay 

• Players in Team Ranked matches on Boulder Bay should no longer have one team spawn right next to water while the other team is landlocked. 

Danube 

• Fixed an issue on Danube where on micro maps a player could spawn with a Neutral Trade Post within their Landmark Town Center’s firing range. 

Dry Arabia 

• Fixed a map generation issue where villagers could spawn stuck inside a woodline on Dry Arabia team games. 

Four Lakes 

• Fixed an issue on Four Lakes where sometimes large stone and/or gold deposits would not spawn on the corner islands. 

Volcanic Island 

• Fixed an issue where deep-water fish were not spawning evenly on Volcanic Island. 

General Changes & Bugfixes (All Platforms) 

• Fixed an issue where having a negative amount of Stone prevented the repair of wooden structures and vice versa. 
• Fixed an issue where production buildings couldn’t produce units after loading a save file if Military Academy had been researched. 
• Reworded the help text on Blacksmith technologies that increase ranged damaged to specify they apply to arrows and bolts. 
• Fixed a crash that could occur after repairing a Malian ally’s Landmark after that player left the match. 
• Ensured that the displayed weapon range of Keeps, Outposts, and Town Centers during placement matches the range displayed after construction. 
• Stealth units will now show the correct unique player color or team color while actively stealthing. 
• Fixed an issue where a unit could be visible at the edge of the Fog of War but be unable to be selected or attacks commanded against it. 
• Fixed an issue where the benefits of some researched technologies would be lost upon loading into a saved game.

Console-Only General Changes & Bugfixes 

• Villagers now drop off held resources before being reassigned by the Villager Priority System on consoles. 
• Fixed a visual issue on consoles where Landmarks would occasionally still show as standing when destroyed by a large amount of damage at once. 

Victory Condition Updates  

• The Sacred Victory timer now pauses while enemy units are standing on a Sacred Site regardless of if allied units are also on that Sacred Site. 
• Wonder cost now scales based on map size: 
  • Micro = 5,000 of each Food, Wood, Gold, and Stone
  • Small = 6,000 of each 
  • Medium = 7,000 of each 
  • Large and larger = 8,000 of each 

Balance & Gameplay Changes (All Civilizations)

• Non-Landmark Town Center range reduced from 8 to 6 tiles.  
• Non-Landmark Town Center garrison space reduced from 10 to 7. 

Developer’s Note: Economic expansion in Feudal Age has been the meta-game for a long time, we’re trying to create a better balance between the three strategic paths of: Economic Expansion, Fast Tech, and Military. Currently there’s not enough counter-play to constructing a second Town Center because it is too effective as a defensive building.  

• Defensive structures and emplacements now attack at the correct speed indicated in the UI. 
• Bombards and Cannons properly deal damage when using attack ground. 
• When a Villager constructs a drop off building, they will drop off any resources they are carrying before moving on to their next queued command.   
• Fixed an issue where units could sometimes use torches against other units, or melee weapons against buildings. 
• Scout weapon information now correctly displays in their UI tooltips.
• Siege Towers
  • Build time decreased from 45 seconds to 30 seconds.
  • Garrison Capacity increased from 8 to 10.
  • Ranged Armor increased from 20 to 50.
  • Movement speed increased from 2.5 to 3.25.
  • Turn Radius increased from 200 to 280.

Naval Updates (All Civilizations) 

• Fishing Boats 
  • Line of Sight reduced from 14 to 11 tiles 
  • Health reduced from 125 to 100 
    • Delhi Sultanate Fishing Boat health reduced from 188 to 150 
    • Rus Fishing Boat health reduced from 250 to 200 
• Heated Shot arrows now restart the burning effect timer when hitting an already burning naval target. 

Wall Updates (All Civilizations) 

• Placing walls is easier than ever before 
  • Dragging walls over obstacles will automatically split the wall into two or more sections, allowing you to wall across multiple blockers with a single order. 
• Villagers build smarter 
  • Instead of constructing bastions last, Villagers will build walls from end to end, starting and ending with the bastion pieces. 
• Palisade mid-wall bastions are no more 
  • Bastions are no longer produced between Palisade Wall segments; this means you don’t have to manually cancel them for resources back anymore. Bastions on the end points of Palisades still exist but cost no resources and build instantly.  
• All static resources can be used as part of a wall 
  • Building a wall across a Gold Mine, Stone Mine, or Berries will completely block navigation so that the resource acts as part of the wall. We’ve added new gap fillers (small walls that extend from wall end pieces) to help clearly show what is and is not walled off.  
• Connect walls with other players 
  • It is now possible to join walls together, making walling with your teammates far easier than before. Stone Walls connected in this way do not create walkable bridges between them but do work together to block navigation. 
• Walls can now be placed closer to blockers 
  • Previously, a 1 tile clearance was required between walls and blockers such as buildings, resources, and Sacred Sites. This has been reduced so that it’s possible to wall right along the footprint edge. However, it is not possible to wall in such a way that buildings can be used to block navigation to keep consistent with the “buildings are not walls” design goal.   
• Breaking a wall segment also breaks adjacent segments 
  • This applies to wall segments connected horizontally, as well as segments connected directly behind so that it’s much higher impact to break through and harder to repeatedly re-wall the same segment after being destroyed. 
• Gates are now omni-directional, meaning that they no longer require placement facing a particular direction. Owned and allied units can use gates to climb onto the wall, but enemy units can no longer use gates for access. 
• Fixed an issue where units could move onto stone wall bastions after an adjacent wall segment was cancelled. 
• Walls no longer shift when terrain deforming structures are built near them.  This fixes the segments popping to a tiered appearance.
• Defensive bonus to targets on Walls have been adjusted:
  • Ranged damage reduction reduced from 66% to 25%.
  • Siege damage reduction reduced from 66% to 50%.

                       Abbasid Dynasty

• Fixed an issue where the Composite Bows technology was giving less attack speed than intended for basic Archers (Veteran and Elite Archers are unchanged). 
• Trade Ships properly receive +5 fire and ranged armor after researching the Armored Caravan technology. 

                               Chinese

• Added buff indicators to the UI for the Tang, Yuan, and Ming Dynasty bonuses. 
• Imperial Officials are no longer counted as idle workers while Automatic Tax Collection is turned on. 

                          Delhi Sultanate

• Hisar Academy Landmark  
  • Fixed an issue where Dock technologies were not contributing to the food bonus granted by the Hisar Academy Landmark. 
• Building multiple Madrasas as the Delhi Sultanate while not having population room will no longer provides the three free Scholar bonus multiple times. 

                                  English

• The King can no longer be converted.  

                               Malians

• Malian Traders that pass an Outpost that is too close to generate tax will now display +0g as they pass the building.  

                            Mongols

• Researching Pax Mongolica no longer causes Outposts to be displayed as cubes while on Xbox One consoles or on PCs with older graphics cards. 
• The Khan will now respawn at the same position near the Landmark Town Center. 
• Fixed a visual issue where a few Mongols buildings had misaligned textures. 
• Fixed an issue where a Mongols building would cancel unpacking if it pathed through the area where another building was unpacking. 

                                  Rus

• Kremlin Landmark  
  • Supply tickets now adhere to their 80 second recharge timer. 
  • Levy All Militia now costs the correct amount of Food. 
  • Corrected an issue where Militia would expire after 8 seconds instead of the intended duration.   
• Warrior Monks will now prioritize attacking over healing when used in patrol and attack move commands. 

Known Issues

Jeanne d’Arc’s Strength of Heaven Buff Disappears when Upgrading a Buffed Unit 

We are aware that the visual effect of Jeanne d’Arc’s Strength of Heaven ability disappears when the buffed unit is upgraded to its next tier (Hardened, Veteren, Elite, etc.). This is purely a visual issue, and the buff continues to be applied to the unit. We do not require any further reports of this issue.

Japanese Treasure Caravans Lose Resources when Embarking/Disembarking

The Japanese unique trader, the Treasure Caravan, produced at the Castle of the Crow Landmark, can cross both land and water to reach its destination Trade Post. However, we are aware that the unit loses some of its held resources each time it has to transition between land and water. This is unintentional and we are working towards a solution in a future patch. We do not require further reports of this issue. 

Unable to Queue in Quick Match when Overselcting Downvoted Maps

We are aware of an issue that can occur while queuing for Quick Match that prevents players from being able to enter the queue. This occurs if a player downvotes 12 or more maps (6 or more if queuing for both Standard and Empire Wars simultaneously), and also selects all match sizes (1v1, 2v2, 3v3, and 4v4). We are working towards a solution in a future patch. In the meantime, please work around this issue by downvoting fewer maps.

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!

Coming Up…

Late November/Early December Patch 

We are planning to have a patch in late November or early December to light-up our final event of the year, Tons o’ Toys. This seasonal event will include more themed challenges, a login event reward, and even a new seasonal biome! This minor patch will also include some balance changes and bug fixes.