Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition News

A new survey is available for Age of Empires IV! We're excited to hear your thoughts about Season Six and the new expansion and use your feedback in developing future content for the game.

Today’s hotfix (December 11th) includes a small change necessary for the Tons o’ Toys seasonal event. Full details about the Tons o’ Toys event can be found on our previous release notes for Patch 9.1.370.

💬 DISCUSS: Official Forum
💬 DISCUSS: Steam Forum
🗣 JOIN: Official Discord

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

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.

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         ◆Hotfix 9.1.404◆

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[h2]Official Mod: Free Camera[/h2]
In Patch 9.1.370 we mentioned a new official mod called “Free Camera”. In case you missed that announcement, the mod is out now for you to enjoy!
[h2]Known Issues[/h2]
Tons o’ Toys Challenge Long Trip Not Unlocking
We are aware that the in-game text for “Long Trip” incorrectly indicates this challenge is unlocked by playing a 2v2 multiplayer Empire Wars match. The correct unlock requirement is:

• 🔒 Play a 2v2 multiplayer match versus 2 AI opponents.

[h2]Upcoming [/h2]
Late January/Early February Patch
We are planning for our next minor patch to release in early 2024, with a target of late January or early February.

[h3]:alertalert: DISCLAIMER[/h3]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.

The festive season is in the air in Age of Empires IV with today’s minor patch (December 6th) – join in the fun with our upcoming Tons o’ Toys seasonal event, chill out in our seasonal Winter biome, or bring the heat to your opponent with the updates to the new civilizations introduced in our recent expansion! Changes introduced today include:

• Stability fixes for campaign and multiplayer.
  
• Additional fixes to improve server latency, meant to pair with improvements made in recent server maintenances.
  
• Adjustments to several maps.
  
• Several corrections to localization.
  
• A new official mod: Free Camera.
  
• Balance changes focused around the Japanese and Byzantines, as well as the variant civilizations.
  
• …plus bug fixes and further balance improvements.

Read more below.

💬 DISCUSS: Official Forum
💬 DISCUSS: Steam Forum
🗣 JOIN: Official Discord

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

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.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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         ◆Patch 9.1.370◆

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[h2]Seasonal Event: Tons o' Toys[/h2]
Stay frosty this winter season with our Tons o’ Toys seasonal event! Complete these cool challenges to unlock a flurry of in-game rewards. Unwrap these presents while you can! Tons o’ Toys is scheduled to run from mid-December through 11:59pm PT on Jan 11th, 2024 (07:59 UTC on Jan 12th, 2024).

We will be releasing a small hotfix build to light-up this event early next-week. If there is any delay of this event, we will communicate this status on the Age of Empires IV game news channel of our Discord.

In-game text for the “Long Trip” incorrectly indicates this challenge is unlocked by playing an Empire Wars match. Please refer to the above challenge list for the updated text.

[h3]Login Event – Surprise Inside[/h3]

A gift just for you! Starting in mid-December, login to Age of Empires IV to claim a special present-themed sigil for your Coat of Arms! This login event will start alongside Tons o’ Toys, and run through 11:59pm PT on December 19th (19:59 UTC on December 20th).

[h3]Seasonal Biome - Winter[/h3]
A snowy, northern landscape in the chill of winter.

The Winter biome will be available in-game starting today (December 6th) and will be available in skirmish and custom lobbies until a planned patch in early 2024.

[h3]Stability Fixes[/h3]
A number of compounding events led to server issues reported on November 18th and 19th. Since then, we’ve taken several steps to improve server latency and stability, including the previously communicated server maintenance windows on November 23rd and 29th. This patch also includes some game-side fixes meant to act in tandem with improvements already made to the server. Thank you all for the reports during this time.

[h3]Map Adjustments[/h3]
Our most recent major update introduced 3 new maps, while our expansion added an additional 10. Several balance changes and bug fixes have been made to some of these and existing maps, detailed in Maps section further on.

[h3]Localization[/h3]
Several players have noted that some of the translations in our expansion were inconsistent with the quality of localization for Age of Empires IV. Thanks to community reporting, we have identified some of these mistranslations and today’s patch fixes many of them, especially with our Chinese localizations.

We welcome further input and discussion on the Age Forums, where our community heroes have already been hard at work. Thank you!

[h3]New Official Mod: Free Camera [/h3]
By popular request, we are introducing a new official mod to allow creators to freely move the camera for taking videos and screenshots. The “Free Camera” mod unlocks the camera from its default constraints and allows movement around without limit.

[h3]Balance Changes[/h3]
With the introduction of 2 new civilizations and 4 variant civilizations, most of today’s balance changes are focused on the impact these new additions have had on recent gameplay and as such there are more balance changes than typical for our minor patches. You can read more about these in the Civilization-Specific Changes section below.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

[h3]:alertalert: DISCLAIMER[/h3]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.

WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers)
WHEN: Wednesday, November 29 @ 2:00pm PT / 5:00p ET / 22:00 UTC (Countdown)
EST. DOWNTIME: 1-2 HOURS

[h3]GAMES & PLATFORMS IMPACTED[/h3]

• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  
• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  
• Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  
• Age of Empires IV (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  

[h3]OBJECTIVES[/h3]

• Routine server updates and maintenance.

[h3]DETAILS[/h3]This coming Wednesday, November 29th, 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 between 1 and 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!

Relive great in-game moments and check out the Age of Empires IV Official Soundtrack, which includes 14 beautifully arranged tracks from the game, and is available to download in different formats!

[h3]Get the Official Sountrack Now![/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1797050/Age_of_Empires_IV_Official_Soundtrack/