[Age of Empires 4] AOE4 Season 1 Patch Notes – Official

Mod Bug Fixes

Big thanks to those of you who joined us for the Public Update Preview! We’ve made some fixes to mods since then:

• The scar console can now be used to debug UGC when launching with “-dev”
• Fix for incorrect message being displayed regarding amount of mod ratings
• Fixed an issue causing front end music to play while paused if the player used a custom map
• Privacy settings have been updated for Mods:
  • Under Steam, users can set their privacy settings for viewing/using user generated content in game under their Online settings
  • Under Xbox, users can set their privacysettings for viewing/using user generated content under their privacy settings
• Fixed an issue from the PUP build where custom games that require mods sometimes do not show up as modded in the custom game browser

Balance Update Goals

• Tighten win rates in preparation of our first ranked season!
• Encourage earlier conflict on the map with deer patches
• Improve the feel of moving naval units and increase strategic options through more effective retreats
• Increase risk and counterplay when constructing buildings near the enemy forces
• Ensure civ unique units stand out instead of being niche counters
• Make dynasty bonuses more useful for the period of the game in which they are unlocked
• Create more compelling decision making around landmark picks

All Civilizations

Core Units

• Field construction build time of Springald increased from 30 to 80 seconds
• Field construction build time of Mangonel increased from 40 to 80 seconds
• Field construction build time of Traction Trebuchet increased from 35 to 80 seconds
• Field constructed Traction Trebuchets now have the correct tool tip
• Scout hunting bow reload time reduced from 2 to 1 second
• Scout melee weapon cool down reduced from 4 to 2 seconds
• Scout melee weapon damage reduced from 4 to 2

Economy

• • Villager hunted meat carry capacity increased from 10 to 25
  • Survival Techniques hunted meat carry capacity bonus removed
  • Survival Techniques hunted meat harvest rate increased from 10% to 15%
  • Survival Techniques research time reduced from 75 to 45 seconds

Naval

• • Improved the responsiveness of small and medium ships
  • Arrow ships can no longer fire while moving

• • Extended Lines research time reduced from 75 to 45 seconds
  • Drift Nets research time reduced 75 to 45 seconds

• • Galley Population reduced from 4 to 3
  • Junk Population reduced from 4 to 2
  • Galleass Population reduced from 6 to 5
  • Attack Ship ranged armor reduced by 1, except for the French Hulk

• • Baghlah springald weapon damage increased from 50 to 70
  • Baghlah attack speed reduced from 3.25 to 3.75 seconds

• • Warship formation spacing reduced from 4.5 to 3 tiles
  • Baochuan weapon range reduced from 9 to 8 tiles

• • Naval Navigator no longer gives +1 weapon range, increased sight range improvement from 1 to 4 tiles

• • Updated the selection area for all fishing deposits to match the visual. This also resolves issues where deep fish became harder to select as the resource was depleted
  • Galley, Dhow and Junk help text updated to specifically indicate they benefit from ranged damage Blacksmith technology
  • Rams can no longer target naval units

Core Buildings & Upgrades

• • Buildings under construction receive 50% more damage
  • Keep build time increased from 120 to 140 seconds
  • Stone Wall Tower build time increased from 60 to 90 seconds
  • Stone Wall Tower cost increased from 200 to 300 stone
  • Boiling Oil cost increased from 250 Gold, 100 Stone to 500 Gold, 200 Stone
  • Boiling Oil research time increased from 60 to 90 seconds
  • Greased Axles movement speed bonus reduced from 20% to 15%
  • Geometry moved from the University to the Siege Workshop
  • Geometry resource cost reduced from 300 Wood, 700 Gold to 100 Wood, 225 Gold
  • Geometry research time reduced from 90 to 45 seconds
  • Siege Works moved from the Siege Workshop to the University
  • Removed completely from the Chinese Astronomical Clocktower
  • Siege Works resource cost increased from 150 Wood, 350 Gold to 300 Wood, 700 Gold
  • Mongol Improved version cost increased from 500 Stone to 1000 Stone
  • Siege Works research time increased from 60 to 90 seconds
  • Siege Works for the Delhi Sultanate research time increased from 900 to 1350 seconds

• Tithe Barns now correctly provides 30 stone per minute instead of 15
• Repair ability now shows the correct requirements when attempting to use it on an enemy player
• Fixed a bug where some units were leaving a visible “ghost” upon entering Fog of War, as if they were buildings. Units affected by this bug were: Battering Rams, Siege Towers, French Bombards, and the field-constructed versions of Mongol and Abbasid siege units.

General Changes

1v1 Resource Spawn Tuning

• 1v1 (Micro) map size resource balancing has received a pass, with the goal of improving the distribution of resources between players.
  • On open maps, like Lipany and Dry Arabia, this has meant objects like relics, gold deposits and stone deposits are now spawning in a tighter band for each player, to cut down on cases where one resource node would spawn considerably further away for one player than for the other. We are always tweaking and looking to improve this, so keep sending us screenshots and map seeds when you feel things are generated unfairly!
  • On divided maps, like Mountain Pass and Mongolian Heights, we have done additional custom tuning for several maps to help ensure that the dividing geography does not separate one player from their allotment of resource deposits. We were seeing instances of, for example, both players’ large gold deposits spawning on the same side of the mountain range on Mountain Pass. This was due to how we place resources within a central band of map area that is calculated based on pathfinding distance from each player’s TC to each point on the map. In cases like Mountain Pass, if one player spawns closer to the opening, the “midpoint” between players would be on one side of the mountain range, and our contested resources would be placed there. This set of tuning has been about finding new constraints for this banding on maps with dividing geography. Danube River, Boulder Bay, Confluence, Mountain Pass, Mongolian Heights and Nagari all received custom tuning in this regard.
• Relics will now spawn in a more balanced configuration – one accessible relic per player, 3 centrally contested relics. This updated balance logic has been applied globally to all map sizes, and tuned specifically for several maps on the Micro (1v1) size. Additional tuning for divided maps at larger sizes will be coming in a later update. Relics have been tuned to spawn further away from each other.
• Divided maps have had custom tuning and will spawn 1 accessible relic and 2 contested relics per “side” of the map, for a total of 6 relics. This was done to ensure that maps in which terrain gives natural ownership to one player don’t have a built-in imbalance due to the nature of spawning an odd number of contestable objects. The maps that include these relic changes are Confluence, Mountain Pass, Mongolian Heights and Nagari. Small gold and stone deposits have had their contested spawn range tightened. One contested small gold and stone will now spawn per player (up from only one overall), with less likelihood that it will be too close to a single player.
• Sacred Sites have had their spawn parameters narrowed to help them spawn evenly across the center of the map on maps where their locations are not being specifically placed by the map script (e.g. on the hill on King of the Hill).

Specific-Map Changes

Nagari

• Mountain ranges have been shortened slightly to provide a more consistent central lake and mountain configuration.
• Deep water fish have been removed from the side ponds and concentrated in the central lake. This was to both remove instances of unbalanced amounts of safe fish and ensure that the most valuable fish are located in a contested part of the map.
• Relic count has been increased to spawn a base 4 relics plus one per player to better ensure fairness of distribution on maps where geography can divide the map into discrete sections
• Resource spawning for 1v1 Micro size matches has had custom tuning done on various resource deposits. Our goal with this pass was to cut down on perceived unbalanced map generations, especially on maps where map geography can divide the map into discrete sections. Resources like gold deposits should now spawn more squarely in each player’s “side” of the map, to avoid instances where a central, contested deposit could be placed on the wrong “side” of the central geography.

Black Forest

• The “forest-y” ness of Black Forest has been reigned in to not spawn unchoppable trees in the middle of your Town Center courtyards
• Trade Posts on Micro and Small map sizes have been adjusted to spawn closer to the exact center of the map to help ensure more equal access
• Spawn reliability of the second deer herd per player has been improved
• Sacred Sites have been re-added to Black Forest. We have been watching for your feedback on this change, so thanks to everyone who gave us their thoughts on the Black Forest Sacred Sites. With the way Age IV plays, Sacred Sites provide a valuable way for you to counter a locked-in defensive strategy. While we appreciate the epic slugfests that remind us of classic Age of Empires II Black Forest gameplay, we feel like the Sacred Sites play well in the Age of Empires IV version of the map.

Added Maps

MegaRandom

As the name implies, MegaRandom has the ability to spawn in an enormous number of different configurations. We’ve created a huge number of random parameters that MegaRandom can choose from when generating, such as whether to spawn lakes and rivers, which types of impasse to use to generate terrain (if any), whether to spawn extra amounts of some resources, whether to incorporate special terrain patterns, and much more!

Campaign

• Changed the order of the campaigns. The new order is as follows: The Normans, The Rise of Moscow, The Hundred Years War, The Mongol Empire
• Fixed a bug causing Age I Mangudai units to have no speech in “The Battle of Zhongdu” campaign mission
• In the mission Dover, enemy units now spawn at the map edge, instead of the fork in the road
• In the mission “The Battle of Mohi”, added a new objective for repairing the broken bridge, to avoid confusion about how to reach the western rally position
• The tooltip for the Stone Wall Tower in campaign now indicates that an upgrade is required to get the springald weapon
• Fixed a bug in the mission “Battle of Zhongdu”, where the mission couldn’t be completed if the player destroyed an enemy market before completing the first objective
• The mission “Battle of Pontvallain” has been made easier by decreasing the number of units in the raiding groups
• The mission “Combat of the Thirty” has been made easier on Hard difficulty by decreasing the quality of enemy units during the final fight
• The mission “Siege of Wallingford” has been made easier on Intermediate and Hard difficulties by decreasing the number of units in each attack wave
• The mission “Battle of Formigny” has been made easier on Hard difficulty by decreasing the size of the English army
• The mission “Siege of Paris” has been made shorter by decreasing the number of enemy attack waves from 10 to 8
• In the mission “North to York”, the player now receives more villagers from each settlement captured
• Fixed a bug where units would be facing the wrong direction after the player skips the intro scene in various Campaign missions
• Fixed a bug where the Mongols’ Improved Raid Bounty tooltip stated an incorrect raid income amount

General Fixes