This coming Monday, December 6th, the platform team will be taking the multiplayer servers down for regular maintenance. Please note:
Ranked matchmaking will disabled exactly one hour before the maintenance window to prevent disruption to newly-formed matches.
Any matches still in progress at the start of the maintenance window will be disrupted when it begins.
DURING THE MAINTENANCE WINDOW, YOU WILL STILL BE ABLE TO LAUNCH THE GAME, BUT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MATCHMAKE OR ACCESS ANY ONLINE FEATURES.
To prevent any interruptions, we recommend wrapping up any games at least 10 minutes before the maintenance window. The downtime is expected to last 1 to 2 hours. You can watch this thread with any changes to the schedule as they arise, as well as the all-clear when the maintenance is complete.
Thank you for your patience!
Go Vote for Age of Empires IV!
The 2021 Game Awards are in full swing and we are proud to announce the nomination of Age of Empires IV for the Best Sim/Strategy game category this year! We still need your help. Log on and go cast your vote. Don't miss out- voting ends Wednesday, December 8 at 6 PM PT (December 9, 02:00 UTC).
Starting today, you’ll be able to install Update 8324 and enjoy the latest features, balance updates and fixes Age of Empires IV has to offer!
If you’ve seen the Age of Empires IV Community Roadmap, then you might be surprised to hear that Winter 2021 was coming early this year (for both the Northern and Southern hemispheres). What can we say? We were really excited to get the Winter 2021 update into your hands!
With this update, we’re bringing a few key feature additions and changes based on your early feedback, along with bug fixes and exploits referenced on various Age channels.
Update 8324 also introduces a substantial number of balance updates. Many of these updates (more than 100!) are in response to callouts you’ve made, and will promote challenging and exciting opportunities regardless of which civilization you’re playing as or against.
Read on for a detailed view of the changes you’ll be able to try out starting today!
Nominate us for Best Soundtrack!
Age of Empires IV spans the globe, and it’s only right that the soundtrack should too. We are strong believers that music breathes life into games, and if it did for you when playing Age of Empires IV we hope you’ll nominate us for Best Soundtrack for Age of Empires IV at the Steam Awards by clicking the button above!
To bring our game to life, we worked with composers, musicians and voice actors from all over the world to bring you a truly global soundtrack that immersed you in the civilizations you control. That each civilization features unique music, instruments and soundscapes that authentically capture the spirit of their gameplay is part of what makes Age IV so real.
The soundtrack is also highly responsive, advancing with you through the ages and reacting to the action on the map – calm and tranquil while you manage your peaceful farms, turning tense with evolving layers when the clouds of war stain the horizon. Additionally, as a civilization progresses through the ages, so too does its audio. Music scores become more refined seeing additional instruments and new techniques layered in, with in-game unit dialogue mirroring this evolution and approaching a more modern form of speaking.
As you have your say on how the games of 2021 compare, we hope you’ll consider Age IV’s music worthy of the Best Soundtrack trophy – and we’d also love your support in the Game of the Year as well!
Wololo!
The Age of Empires IV Team
Age of Empires Steam Autumn Sale!
Cooler temperatures are here and so are the sales! Starting November 24, the Steam Autumn Sale is in full swing. All Age of Empires Definitive Editions are on sale now along with all DLC titles. Age of Empires: Definitive Edition, Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, and Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition are all available at a reduced price. Jump into the fun that all your friends are talking about and get your holiday shopping done early!
For many of us, Age of Empires has been a part of our lives for… well… Ages. Within the annals of gaming history, this franchise carries as much prestige as any empire featured in our games – and with Age of Empires IV, the first new-numbered title in 16 years, our team has dedicated themselves to creating a Wonder worthy of our heritage.
With nominations for the Steam Awards now open, we hope you’ll pick us as your Game of the Year. With Age of Empires IV we’ve aimed to let you dive deep into the history of the human race while giving you the strategic command to make these epic campaigns your own. Our massive campaigns let you feel the march of history, with videos and narration so compelling they’ve been included in higher educational programs! Take the reigns and immerse yourself in key moments of history as you play through four robust campaigns!
Let’s also not forget the 8 asymmetric civilizations, unique technology trees, multiple victory conditions and strategic gameplay that has already earned us a nomination in The Game Awards. Boasting Single Player, Skirmish vs. AI, and Multiplayer options, no matter your preference, you're free to battle it out your way in Age of Empires IV!
The Steam Awards are about celebrating the whole year of gaming, so we hope you’ll share your voice on what the best games of 2021 have been in all the other categories too. You should vote for all your favourites, and we’ll be sharing why we think we might also deserve a few more awards over the next few days!
If you need any more convincing that we have earned the top spot as Game of the Year… WOLOLO!
Best wishes,
The Age of Empires IV team
Age of Empires IV Winter Update Coming Next Week
We hinted that the Winter 2021 update mentioned in our Community Roadmap might be closer than expected, and here's us confirming it! We'll be bringing you our first major update next week, and we can't wait for you to get your hands on the 100+ Balance and Bug Fixes contained within.
We've detailed some planned changes previously, but for posterity’s sake, here they are again:
French Hulk ship tweaked to no longer rule the high seas.
Crossbowmen, Spearman and Elite Crossbowmen will pose a greater threat to Cavalry.
Significantly reducing the cost of the Chinese civilization’s Repeater crossbow.
Fix to HRE Prelate unit to allow them to continue inspiring after being pushed.
Mongol "Superior Mobility" adjusted to ensure the speed modifier is appropriately applied. Thanks to the community for calling this out!
Fix issued for the Rus civilization to eliminate infinite Relic duplication.
As well, here are some of the feature additions and adjustments that will also be included in the update:
Make the choice to turn on and view in-game player scores! Based on community feedback, we’ve made the decision to implement in-game scores for those who wish to have them. We know that using this feature can change the way you choose to play the game, and so we want to empower you to make the choice for yourself – starting with our Winter 2021 update, you’ll be able to enable in-game player score on a case-by-case basis for custom lobby multiplayer and skirmish matches.
We’ve moved the Chinese Dynasty button and user interface to a less prominent position on the screen. You’ll now find it in the lower left-hand corner.
The ability to view the map post-match is something you’ve asked for, and we’ve begun to make changes to allow you to do just that. Starting with the Winter 2021 update, you’ll be able to pan across the map of a completed match after finishing up your game – we'll be looking to fold in additional options to allow you to easily switch back and forth between the completed map view and post-game stats in Spring 2022.
Refinements made to the in-game mini-map to improve readability are also coming in Winter 2021. Improvements include reducing the size of icons, ensuring the Wonder icon on the mini-map matches the icon displayed in the HUD, increasing the size of the Primary Town Center in comparison to other Landmarks, and adjusting the color of certain resources.
We’ll have full release notes to share when the update's ready to go! In addition, we also wanted to give a proper heads up about saved games, replays, and progress below.
What will happen to my saved games and replays? Upon updating to this build version, you will no longer be able to utilize replays or saves from previous builds.
What about my campaign progress and unlocked content? Campaign progress and all content unlocked within the game will be unaffected.
What’s Next for Age of Empires IV?
Age of Empires IV officially released on October 28th and World’s Edge and Relic Entertainment have loved watching you play! As we shared on the eve of our launch, October 28th signified the beginning, but we’re far from done. We are so grateful to our community for keeping the spirit of Age alive these nearly 25 years and for those of you joining us for the first time with Age of Empires IV. We’ll be looking to our players and your feedback as we continue to build a better Age together.
With our first patch officially released earlier this week, it’s time to turn our attention to what we’ll be introducing in the future. Read on to get a quick glimpse at some of our plans for Winter 2021 and Spring 2022, as well as some feature requests the team is tracking based on your feedback.
Winter 2021
On Monday, November 15th, we launched Patch 7989 to introduce fixes to Xbox Account linking, an issue with Mongol Town Center behavior, performance impacts when panning the camera and some other tweaks. While this patch was smaller and more pointed, we’re happy to share that we’re putting the finishing touches on a larger patch we’ll look to share soon.
In Winter 2021, we’ll be introducing hundreds of balance changes (literally!), a variety of helpful bug fixes and a few key features we’ve seen requested by players. Our team has been hard at work preparing this update, and we’re appreciative to the community for lending your voice to the conversation.
Here’s a sneak peek of some of the goodness we’re queuing up for Winter 2021:
<*>Make the choice to turn on and view in-game player scores! Based on community feedback, we’ve made the decision to implement in-game scores for those who wish to have them. We know that using this feature can change the way you choose to play the game, and so we want to empower you to make the choice for yourself – starting with our Winter 2021 update, you’ll be able to enable in-game player score on a case-by-case basis for custom lobby multiplayer and skirmish matches.
<*>We’ve moved the Chinese Dynasty button and user interface to a less prominent position on the screen. You’ll now find it in the lower left-hand corner.
<*>The ability to view the map post-match is something you’ve asked for, and we’ve begun to make changes to allow you to do just that. Starting with the Winter 2021 update, you’ll be able to pan across the map of a completed match after finishing up your game – we’ll be looking to fold in additional options to allow you to easily switch back and forth between the completed map view and post-game stats in Spring 2022.
<*>Refinements made to the in-game mini-map to improve readability are also coming in Winter 2021. Improvements include reducing the size of icons, ensuring the Wonder icon on the mini-map matches the icon displayed in the HUD, increasing the size of the Primary Town Center in comparison to other Landmarks, and adjusting the color of certain resources.
For balance and bug fixing, we’ve got loads of changes to share with you in our release notes when this update lands, but here are a handful of adjustments our balance team is particularly excited about:
<*>French Hulk ship tweaked to no longer rule the high seas.
<*>Crossbowmen, Spearman and Elite Crossbowmen will pose a greater threat to Cavalry.
<*>Significantly reducing the cost of the Chinese civilization’s Repeater crossbow.
<*>Fix to HRE Prelate unit to allow them to continue inspiring after being pushed.
<*>Mongol “Superior Mobility” adjusted to ensure the speed modifier is appropriately applied. Thanks to the community for calling this out!
<*>Fix issued for the Rus civilization to eliminate infinite Relic duplication.
Spring 2022
Age of Empires IV, like other titles within this globally beloved franchise, offers many ways to engage – whether you’re a history buff, fan of building out sprawling empires and taking on the AI, or more competitive in nature. Coming in Spring 2022, we’ll be adding two new ways to enjoy Age of Empires IV.
<*>User Generated Content and tools allow you to bring your ideas to life. Not a mod maker yourself? No worries, you’ll still be able to enjoy the work of others – sampling their vision for unique maps, modes and more. This will provide just another way to truly make history your story in Age of Empires IV.
<*>Spring 2022 will also see the start of Ranked Seasons. Ranked Seasons will span 12 weeks, allow players to compete head-to-head, climb the ranked ladder, and earn exclusive in-game rewards based on performance. We look forward to sharing more about Seasons in 2022, and if you’re looking to get some practices in ahead of time, we’d encourage you to brush up on your knowledge with the Art of War challenges, Campaign or play against AI and other players!
We’ll also be finalizing some minor improvements to the post-game map in Spring 2022, introducing the Patrol move you’ve been asking for, as well as exploring the inclusion of other features and fixes based on player feedback.
Looking Forward
While we’re committed to bringing about the features and changes highlighted above, we’re also spending time with what our players are saying they want to see in Age of Empires IV in the future.
Your feedback will help us as we continue to plan for Spring 2022 and beyond. We’re actively looking into the feedback below:
<*>Global Build Queue – We know this is a feature many of you have enjoyed in previous Age titles and would like to see in Age of Empires IV.
<*>Improvements to the Unit Stat card – Based on your feedback, we’re looking into how we can better serve up the most meaningful stats at a glance.
<*>Hotkey Improvements – We recognize that hotkeys are a big component in competitive play and are a topic our community cares a great deal about. This is a bigger change, and something we’re investigating from a few different angles, including a movement away from the grid system as well as implementing a few other options via hotkey selections.
<*>Taunts and Cheats – Part of the Age Legacy, we’re exploring what these elements would look (and sound!) like in Age of Empires IV.
<*>AI Difficulty – We’ve heard from you that AI difficulty could use some tuning, specifically making the Easy AI less aggressive and boosting the challenge of the Hard AI.
<*>Waypoint Indicators – Another quality of life feature from previous Age titles, we know this is something many of you want to see returned to Age of Empires IV.
Thank you again to each and every one of you who have helped us bringing about the dawning of a new Age! The journey’s only just begun, and we’ll continue to monitor your feedback to create the best possible Age of Empires IV experience with you.
Age of Empires IV — Patch 7989
Thank you to those who have joined us in playing and celebrating Age of Empires IV so far – we’ve enjoyed seeing your empires flourish and can’t wait to “Age Up” together as we continue updating the Age IV experience!
Starting today, November 15, 2021 at 9 AM PT (17:00 UTC), we’ll be introducing our first patch 7989 with a few key fixes based off your feedback.
Before You Update: Please note that upon updating to 7989, you will no longer be able to utilize replays from previous updates. At times, saves will also be impacted, though we’ve taken additional steps to ensure your saves from 7274 are not impacted by this particular update.
Thank you for for sharing in the successful release of Age of Empires IV! We look forward to continue hearing your feedback. You can post in our Age IV forums with your thoughts at any time.
Changes made to drastically reduce performance drops when panning the camera across the map.
Steam users are now able to link their Xbox Live accounts in-game.
Some users reported health bars disappearing during gameplay regardless of their setting selections. This has been fixed with patch 7989, and in-game health bars should appear when you tell them to (in the settings!).
The Mongol Town Center Capital can no longer be placed directly next to their opponent’s Town Center. From now on, the Mongol Town Center Capital must be placed in an explored area, and not within 20 tiles of an enemy’s Town Center. Our Balance team will continue to observe your feedback on this and other elements of gameplay.
Small adjustments made to in-game localization.
KNOWN ISSUES
You can find a list of Known Issues HERE at any time.
Replays from 7274 are not compatible with 7989.
The requirements text for the Mongol Town Center Capital does not call out the necessity for it to be placed in an explored area. We will be fixing this in a future update.
Known issue Infinite Relic Duplication for Rus Civilization has been identified for a fix in a future update.
Known issue Mongol Civ – Packed Buildings Continuously Repaired has been identified for a fix in a future update.
Known issue Mongol Civ - Superior Mobility Providing Too Much Increased Movement Speed has been identified for a fix in a future update.
Server Maintenance - Wednesday, November 10, 2021
WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers) WHEN: Wednesday, November 10, 2021, @ 2:00p PT / 5:00p ET / 22:00 UTC (Countdown) EST. DOWNTIME: 1 - 2 HOURS
This coming Wednesday, November 10th, the platform team will be taking the multiplayer servers down for regular maintenance. Please note:
Ranked matchmaking will disabled exactly one hour before the maintenance window to prevent disruption to newly-formed matches.
Any matches still in progress at the start of the maintenance window will be disrupted when it begins.
DURING THE MAINTENANCE WINDOW, YOU WILL STILL BE ABLE TO LAUNCH THE GAME, BUT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MATCHMAKE OR ACCESS ANY ONLINE FEATURES.
To prevent any interruptions, we recommend wrapping up any games at least 10 minutes before the maintenance window. The downtime is expected to last 1 to 2 hours. You can watch this thread with any changes to the schedule as they arise, as well as the all-clear when the maintenance is complete.
