Age of Mythology: Retold Update 18.9036

Immortal Pillars DLC is Now Available!

Jump into a legendary journey in Immortal Pillars, the first expansion for Age of Mythology: Retold! Command divine powers, lead mythical creatures, and build majestic cities as you experience a rich tapestry of Chinese culture and mythology. From its captivating deities to its intricate landscapes, Immortal Pillars expands your strategic possibilities and immerses you in a vibrant, mythological world. Immortal Pillars is now available on Steam, Microsoft Store, Xbox, and PlayStation 5!

Key Features at a Glance 

• 12 New Gods: Including Fuxi, Shennong, Nüwa, Gonggong, Zhurong, and more, each offering unique god powers and mythological units. 
• 9-Level Campaign: Immerse yourself in a narrative journey through Chinese mythology.
• Mythical Units: Command creatures such as the Yazi, Zhuque, and Taowu, each with game-changing abilities. 
• 7 New Maps: Explore diverse biomes inspired by China’s iconic landscapes.

Age of Mythology: Retold on PlayStation 5!

The moment you’ve been waiting for is here – Age of Mythology: Retold is now available on PlayStation 5! Plus, anyone who owns the Premium Edition has access to Immortal Pillars as well!

Available Now!

Jump into all the fun of Age of Mythology: Retold available now on PlayStation 5!

PlayStation 5

New Game Mode: Daily Celestial Challenge

Get ready for an exhilarating new game mode: Daily Celestial Challenge – a new twist on skirmish! Every day, you’ll face unique and rule-bending World Twists that will test your skills and strategy. Equip powerful Blessing bonuses to gain an edge as you challenge the gods themselves!

Each day brings a fresh Celestial Challenge with different opponents and rules, keeping the gameplay exciting and unpredictable. By playing daily, you can unlock fantastic new rewards and strive to achieve high scores by winning quickly and efficiently. Plus, you can replay the challenges multiple times, with everything refreshing daily to keep the experience fresh and engaging.

Players who participate will be shown on the leaderboard for the current day, which reflects the player’s current high score. The leaderboards are reset daily at 9 AM PT, and the next day, you’ll receive a notification in-game showing what rank your account achieved on the leaderboard.

Dive into the Daily Celestial Challenge and see how you measure up against the divine!

Stability & Performance

• Fixed crashes that could occur in some rare situations.
• Minor improvements to increase general stability.
• Performance updates for VFX and other Immortal Pillars content.
• Fixed a hang that could occur when skipping a cinematic in a multiplayer custom random game.
• Fixed a persistent black screen that could occur when skipping some cinematics.
• Fixed a crash that could occur on some machines when tabbing out while the game starts and then changing graphics settings.
• Stability improvements for PlayStation 5.

Achievements

• Fixed a bug with the Xuanyuan Sword achievement that caused it to be unobtainable.

Localization

• Updates to localization to address strings where the English version appeared in the last update.
• Updates to improve the quality of some strings.

Graphics

• Performance optimizations applied to Immortal Pillars VFX content.
• Updates to improve the consistency of visuals in some Pillars of the Gods campaign missions.

Audio

• Music is now present in the Chinese tutorial cinematic.
• Updates to adjust cinematic sound levels in all audio for the Pillars of the Gods campaign.
• Fixed a bug causing cinematic music in some missions to be quiet and unaffected by the music volume setting.

UI

• Fixed a bug causing the light set changes made in Photo Mode to persist after exiting Photo Mode.
• Fixed a bug causing some text to clip incorrectly in some situations.
• Fixed a bug where observers joining a match would see “Open Slot” instead of player names in the lobby and loading screens.
• Fixed a bug where visual glitches could occur when transitioning from cutscenes to loading screens or to campaign progress dialogs.
• Fixed a bug causing passwords to block spectating matches in some situations that should not have required a password.
• Fixed a bug in Arena of the Gods where the blessing information would not show correctly in some situations.
• Fixed a bug during lobby setup where players who do not own a DLC could not see the selected Major God of players who had selected a Major God that is part of a DLC.
• Updated main menu layout.
• Fixed a missing button background for the Chinese pantheon tutorial in the Learn tab of the main menu.
• Fixed a bug preventing use of the invite search bar when using controller in some situations.
• Fixed a bug where crossplay setting changes could require a game restart to apply in some situations.
• Fixed various issues with navigation in the Code of Conduct UI that made it harder to navigate.
• Fixed a bug causing the “Directory Up” button to not always show as available in the correct situations in the save/load dialogs.
• In the save/load dialogs directories will now show up at the top and remain alphabetical when sorting by size.

Controller/Xbox

• Added construct building site menu commands to foundations.
• Added repair building site menu command.
• Fixed a bug causing icons on the radial menu UI to appear darker than intended in some situations.
• Fixed a bug with myth units in the Atlantean find menu.
• Added a ring menu for the trading post.
• The Villager Priority System will now default to automatic farm construction enabled.
• Fixed a bug that could sometimes occur while initializing the Villager Priority System.
• Moved transport into the correct find menu location for the Chinese and Atlanteans.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the techs to display incorrectly in the ring menu after selecting multiple of a particular unit / building type.
• Fixed a bug that would have prevented researching fishing ship upgrades on Controller in some situations.
• Fixed a bug causing the Age Up option in the God Power menu to not function correctly in some situations when using the hold to show menu mode.

Fixes

• Fixed a bug in Arena of the Gods where you could become stuck in cutscenes when playing in Coop mode.
• Fixed a bug causing AI exploration to not behave correctly in some situations.
• Changing major god of a player from Chinese to non-Chinese through triggers now properly deactivates God Bonuses and removes buff progress UI elements from the HUD.
• The game camera is no longer improperly zoomed when loading a save file while the Chinese background scenario plays on the main menu.
• Self-casted abilities (e.g., Qiongqi flying/landing) now properly cycle among potential casters when manually cast.
• Fixed a bug allowing the SPC version of Titan gates to be throwable by various means.
• Fixed a bug where Town Centers could not be placed over settlements if a Tartarian Gate was placed too close.
• Fixed a bug where Isis Town Centers gave +5 population while under construction.
• Fixed a trade bug caused by an issue with the defensive stance.
• Automatons no longer regenerate when dying while in a disabled state (i.e., being frozen/petrified or thrown after dying) before playing their death animation to prevent them from ending up in a “zombified” state.
• Fixed a bug causing some actions not to behave correctly. This affected passive heal auras (e.g., Healing Spring, Quilin, etc.) and the Fei Beast infection mechanic.
• Fixed a bug that allowed Taotie to improperly apply stackable bonuses if its target died before the devour action was performed.
• Fixed a bug causing gather rate to be calculated incorrectly in some situations.
• Fixed a bug that could cause Kuafus to not obey gather points in some situations.
• Fixed bugs with some blessings that did not function correctly when playing as the Chinese pantheons.

General

Technologies:

• Heroic Fleet: adjusted as follows
  • Research time reduced from 40 → 20 seconds.
  • Cost reduced from 150 food 150 wood 10 favor → 100 wood 100 wood 10 favor.
  • Bonus vs myth units increased from +1.5x to +2x.

Developer Note: Myth units on water have been dominating naval gameplay, these changes should hopefully open up some more counter-play to the naval myth units, and enforce the ship counter-triangle further.

Relics:

• Pandoras Box: myth unit favor cost reduced from -20% → 15%.
• Blanket of Empress Zoe: building crush armor vulnerability bonus increased from -10% → -15%.

                      Greek Pantheon

Major Gods

Poseidon

• Lure (God Power) – cost reduced from 30 → 20 favor.

Developer Note: The Lure is rarely ever seen getting recast, this should hopefully make it more appealing to do so.

Minor Gods

• Athena: Restoration (God Power) – repeat cost increased from +10 → +20 favor.

Developer Note: This god power often scaled very well into later stages of the game, and recasts being as cheap as they are allowed for immense value. These changes should bring the power in line a little for later stages in the game, and make Athena not stand out as much from the other 2 Classical age options.

• Apollo: Oracle (Technology) – Unit and building line of sight bonus increased from +4 to +5.

                        Egyptian Pantheon

Minor Gods

Bast: Hieracosphinx (Technology) – Movement speed bonus on sphinx reduced from +15% to +10%.

Developer Note: The Sphinx at maximum upgrades was over-performing across the board, this change hopes to bring them in line.

Sekhmet: Citadel (God Power) – cooldown increased from 30 → 120 seconds.

Developer Note: The cooldown of this god power was surprisingly low, it has been adjusted, which is particularly noticeable in Deathmatch, but shouldn’t affect Supremacy as much.

Human Units

• Camel Rider: Now have a 1.25x multiplier vs archers.
• War Elephant: Now have a 1.5x multiplier vs archers.

Developer Note: The Egyptian roster was lacking in anti-archer potential, so giving these 2 units some extra damage against them helps Egyptians deal with ranged soldiers better, now that the chariot archer is not as good at this role anymore.

                   Norse Pantheon

Minor Gods

• Forseti: Dwarven Breastplate (Technology) – Hirdman and Berserk bonus reduced from -20% → -15% hack armor vulnerability.
• Freyja: Sessrumnir (Technology) – Hero hitpoints increased from 15% → 20%.

Developer Note: This upgrade was seeing very little use, hopefully a small boost should allow it to become more useful and open more options for Freyja over Forseti.

• Tyr: Fimbulwinter (God Power) – Added a hard cap and a soft cap to the number of wolves that the Fimbulwinter God Power can spawn.

Developer Note: This should address the concern that Fimbulwinter scales too effectively in team games.

Myth Unit:

• Raven (Odin): Line of sight increased from 14 → 16.

                    Atlantean Pantheon

Minor Gods

• Prometheus: Theft of Fire (Technology) – Adjusted as follows
  • Cost reduced from 100 wood 20 favor → 100 wood 12 favor.
  • Research time reduced from 40 → 30 seconds.

Developer Note: These changes hope to make an economic playstyle more viable for Prometheus.

Hero Units

• Cheiroballista Hero: adjusted as follows
  • Hitpoints increased from 115 → 120.
  • Attack range reduced from 20 → 18.
  • Line of sight reduced from 24 → 20.

Developer Note: The Cheiroballista has still been performing poorly overall, these changes aim to hopefully make the unit perform better in its intended role, hard-countering infantry, and overlap less in role and usage with the arcus.

• Turma Hero: adjusted as follows
  • Movement speed 5.6 → 5.3.
  • Line of sight reduced from 20 → 18.
  • Attack range increased from 13 → 14.

Developer Note: The Turma has been unintentionally effective at taking out slower infantry targets, these changes should hopefully slow them down so that cavalry as well as faster counter-cavalry infantry units have an easier time dealing with them, and their range is compensated to allow turma to still counter archers effectively.

Human Units

• Turma: adjusted as follows
  • Movement speed reduced from 5.3 → 5.0.
  • Line of sight reduced from 18 → 16.
  • Attack range increased from 13 → 14.

Siege Units

• Cheiroballista: adjusted as follows
  • Hitpoints increased from 85 → 105.
  • Attack range reduced from 20 → 18.
  • Line of sight reduced from 22 → 20.

Buildings

• Sky Passage (Oranos): Adjusted as follows
  • Cost reduced from 50 wood 8 favor → 25 wood 8 favor.
  • Sky Passage hitpoints reduced from 650 → 500.

Developer Note: Oranos was performing worse than the other Atlanteans, so a small buff to sky passages should hopefully make him more viable, while making them a bit more vulnerable to allow more counter play to them.

                  Chinese Pantheon

Major Gods

Shennong

• Heal rate on favored land reduced from 5 → 1.5 per second, but increases by 1.5 per age.

Minor Gods

• Chiyou: Son of Loong (Technology) – Yazi special attack damage reduced from +50 → +40 hack.

Myth Units

• Taowu (Goumang): can now throw cavalry units with his dash.
• Yazi (Chiyou): adjusted as follows
  • Movement speed reduced from 6 → 5.5.
  • Hitpoints reduced from 250 → 210.
  • Hack Armor reduced from 35% → 25%.

General

• Fixed a bug that caused a failure to load the yellow_river map when starting games with the water map set of random maps.

New Immortal Pillars Maps Added

*Only owners of the new Immortal Pillars DLC will gain access to seven new maps.

Bamboo Grove

You start in a narrow pass within the bamboo forest. Hold the chokepoint, exploit the resources behind your base, and defend against enemy attacks from the front.

Great Wall

The Great Wall offers a temporary truce. Fortify your defenses and plan your attack before breaking through to the enemy!

Peach Blossom Land

Players begin together in this mythical paradise, but must venture out into the Peach Blossom Land for resources, or attack early to seize the advantage.

Qinghai Lake

A mysterious shrine rests upon China’s largest lake, its shallows navigable by land and naval units alike. Capture it to gain an economic bonus.

Silk Road

With limited resources to gather, players need to capture Trading Posts along the Silk Road which grant resources of your choice. The Trading Posts will stay under your control as long as your units or buildings are nearby.

Steppe

The generous grassland perimeter offers ample resources, but true power lies in controlling the central open steppe and its vital settlements.

Yellow River

The Yellow River divides the region and forks in the center to form an island. Shallow crossings offer passage, making attacks predictable and rewarding keen awareness of your opponent. Players must migrate to more fertile banks as the starting resources run dry.

General

• Town Center Building Chain anchor VFX is no longer shown in the editor to prevent the constant spawning of objects whenever a scenario with Chinese Town centers is loaded.
• Fixed a bug in the default editor that caused the “Size” text on the New Scenario popup to show in the wrong place.

Investigation

As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates.

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

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.