Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition News

It’s a new day and a new Age this gamescom 2022, and we’re excited to provide a comprehensive overview here! Below, we’ll catch you up on the latest Age of Empires IV news, including a quick introduction to the two new civilizations arriving later this year, and some opportunities to spend your time with the game over the next week – for free!

Some of you may have spotted mention of a certain “Anniversary” that’s coming up, and what can we say? We’re declaring it here: 2022 is the Year of Age – not only is Age of Empires IV turning one in October, but that same month marks 25 years of the franchise as well.

We think turning a quarter-of-a-century years old is cause for celebration, and we’re inviting you all to join us in October! You already know about the Red Bull Wololo: Legacy tournament taking place that same week, and we’ll have even more plans to share with you soon – so keep a close eye on Age channels.

[h2]New Civilizations Coming with Anniversary Update[/h2]
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If you missed our segment during gamescom 2022 Opening Night Live, then you’ll be excited to learn that new civilizations are coming to Age of Empires IV in an Anniversary Update in October; while you’ll need to own the base game to play, the update and its contents are completely free! Starting October 25th, we invite you to once again make history your story and play the newest civs: the Ottomans and Malians!

Lead the mighty Malians of West Africa as one of the richest trading nations of all-time as you focus on strong economic prowess in mining and investing in gold. Or assemble one of the longest-lasting empires in history with the Ottoman civilization and its well-trained military force, which features the largest gunpowder siege weapon available – the Great Bombard.

Alongside these two civilizations, the free Anniversary Update will also include new maps, Achievements and Masteries, alongside the content announced for Season Three in our June 2022 roadmap. Make sure you’ve got October 25th marked in your calendar; it’s going to be a great day for Age of Empires IV!

Not sure if you can wait that long? No worries! Next month, you’ll have the chance to get hands on experience with the Ottomans, Malians and loads of new content as part of our next Public Update Preview (PUP). Sign up today as an Age Insider, and we’ll email you when the PUP kicks off!

[h2]There has Never a Better Time to Play Age of Empires IV [/h2]



There’s a lot in store over the next few months, and now is a perfect time to get started with Age of Empires IV! Starting today through Monday, August 29th at 10:00am PT [17:00 UTC] you’ll be able to play the game for free on Steam as part of our Free Play Week and purchase the game on Steam or Microsoft Store at a 50% discount.

To celebrate those of you who will be joining us for the first time, we’ve officially extended Season Two Event Two: By Stars and Sea through Tuesday, August 30th, to make sure you have the chance to earn some cool rewards.

[h2]Knights, castles, horses? Yes, please! Tell all your friends![/h2]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1466860/Age_of_Empires_IV/

WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers)
WHEN: Wednesday, August 17 @ 2:00p PT / 5:00p ET / 21:00 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, August 17th, 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!

Look up to the skies as we navigate our second Seasonal Event, By Stars and Sea, as part of Age of Empires IV’s Season Two.

Head To the North! by playing through the Formigny mission on Hard difficulty, Get to Safety by garrisoning 10 Villagers in your Town Center, and more as you complete challenges and unlock seasonal rewards.

Navigating the endless seas goes hand in hand with experiencing unique sights and natural wonders. Be careful not to get lost – or you might end up stranded!

• Unlock new Coats of Arms!
• Unlock new Portraits! 
  (At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of history? Localized entirely within Age of Empires IV?… YES!)

[h2]Event Rewards[/h2]
From August 9th through August 30th, complete in-game tasks within the time limit to unlock exclusive rewards!



[h2]Show it off![/h2]
Be sure to show off your Season’s progress by changing up your portrait or customizing your coat of arms with your new rewards from Season Two, By Stars and Sea.

We hope you’re enjoying this event, and are looking forward to the rest of the Season.

PS: Don’t forget to keep sharing your feedback on Seasons with us in the forums! We love hearing what you think.

The latest patch for Age of Empires IV is now available!

Patch 20249 includes fixes to the Prelate attack move bug, remappable hotkey fixes, map balance changes, and more! For full details be sure to head over to the original Patch Notes using the link below.

NOTE: Upon updating to this patch, you will no longer be able to utilize replays and saves from previous updates. While we do our best effort to minimize impact on saves, Campaign and Skirmish saves from the previous patch are impacted and will no longer be accessible after you update. Campaign progress will NOT be lost with this patch update.

Welcome back to an exciting patch for Age of Empires IV! On August 4th, we’ll be rolling out balance changes, bug fixes, and more. And yes, that means we’re also including the Prelate Attack move bug you’ve reported! We’re also adding more improvements to hotkey features, including the ability to batch-queue units properly when using shift, mapping more hotkeys for civ-specific commands. Here are a few highlights that you can look forward to in this update!

• Remappable Hotkey Fixes
• Map Balance Changes
• Other Balance Features
• Quality-of-Life Bug Fixes

💬 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

NOTE: Upon updating to this patch, 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 campaign saves are not impacted by this particular update. Skirmish saves from the previous patch are impacted and will no longer be accessible after you update.

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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         ◆ UPDATE 20249 ◆

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[h2]Remappable Hotkeys[/h2]

• When using the Fully Remappable hotkey layout, holding down Shift key and unit production commands will correctly batch produce units.
  
• When using the Fully Remappable hotkey layout, holding down a hotkey now correctly queues up multiple units in a production building, and buys/sells large quantities of resources at the market.
  

[h3]Fixes to Remappable Key Bindings[/h3]

• Cancel Construction hotkey is now remappable.
  
• Wooden Fortresses now respect bindings made under the Outpost category.
  
• Golden Gate keys are now properly mapped to match the Market.
  
• Khan Attack Speed Arrow is now remappable.
  
• Mongol Town Center double production keys now mirror the Town Center keys properly.
  
• Professional Scouts (Improved) now mirrors the base hotkey.
  
• English unique technology Admiralty is now remappable.
  
• White Tower unit production hotkeys now update properly.
  
• Wynguard Palace unit production is now remappable.
  
• Astronomical Clocktower siege is now remappable.
  
• Barbican of the Sun emplacement upgrades are now remappable.
  
• Palace of Swabia Prelates now mirror the Town Center binding.
  
• Burgrave Palace is now fully remappable.
  
• Delhi Sultanate Assign Scholar Directly is now remappable
  

[h2]NEW Mods![/h2]
We’ve added additional terrain types for modders that spawn just one instance of each main resource type:

• Gold (small and large), Stone (small and large), berries (small and large), deer (small and large, so 3 and 7) and sheep (single, double, triple).
  

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.