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Age of Empires IV: Anniversary Edition News

Watch The Elite Classic Tournament Finals This Weekend!


It is time for the The Elite Classic Finals! Checkout the action-packed finale of this Age of Empires IV tournament. Who will be crowned champion? Watch as this league-style esports event reaches its dramatic climax. Starting June 17th at 15:00 GMT/UTC, tune in and watch LIVE on the Elite Gaming Channel!

                                      

Get 40% Off Age of Empires IV Now!


Starting TODAY through June 19th, get Age of Empires IV from Steam at a 40% discount!

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

Age of Empires IV – Update 7.0.5861 Now Live!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h3]Known Issue:[/h3]
  • Failed to Update Match Details Error In Custom Lobbies
    • We are aware of a failed to update match error that sometimes occurs when selecting Empire Wars, Nomad, Crafted Maps, and some other mods. We are investigating this issue and will update this post when more information is available. Clicking past the error will allow you to proceed, and the error should have no impact on gameplay.

Visit our Knows Issues & Solutions page to see what’s being tracked!

A major update for Season Five, is LIVE! In today’s update, we’re turning up the heat with Map Monsters: Summer Party Edition! Scout the land and scour the sea in search for the elusive Wild Man and mysterious Dragon Turtle in our new event! Plus, start a match off strong in Empire Wars – a new, quick-to-action game mode where players start with a burgeoning empire of pre-built buildings and villagers already tasked to resources. But that’s not all: We’ve packed this update with loads of new content and features, ready for you to dive into now!

Here are a few highlights:
  • Three new maps: Golden Heights, Migration, and Volcanic Island!
  • The start of Ranked Season Five, bringing with it new rewards and an updated map pool rotation!
  • Team Voice Chat – strategize with your friends in-match with the new team voice chat! Or use the speech-to-text feature to more easily send communications to your team!
  • Visual upgrades, and performance-related improvements!
  • New trade updates based directly on community feedback!
  • New unique options for every civilization! From unique tech to unique units, we’re making design changes so that each civilization’s personality shines through!
  • Additional support for mods that make it easier for everyone in the lobby to start the match.
  • … and a whole lot of bug fixes & balance changes!

[h2]More On What’s to Come [/h2]
We’re excited to have you all join in the latest Season of Age of Empires IV! Season Five: Map Monsters Summer Party Edition brings a number of new features and improvements, and we’re already planning for additional patches, events and more over the next several months as part of our seasonal line-up. As well, the team is hard at work bringing Age of Empires IV to console following the announcement last fall.

Read on below for some additional details related to the next couple of months of Season Five.

[h3]Changes to Matchmaking Present Today [/h3]
We know you’ve already read through a lengthy set of Update Notes this week, but following yesterday’s server maintenance, you may notice some changes in Ranked matchmaking today that are aimed at getting you into a match sooner.

These updates change the first band of our matchmaking slightly, accommodating for an initial higher-point difference in ELO between you and the person you’re ultimately matched with. This should shave off some of the initial time to matchmake for any player experiencing wait times of six minutes or less on average. We’re continuing efforts to improve matching for players toward the extreme lower and higher ends of the ELO range, but in the meantime, please send any feedback or issues related to these changes our way.

[h3]July Patch [/h3]
As we mentioned earlier in the week, we’ve already got a patch in the works for late July. This patch will allow us to monitor and respond to some of the early feedback following the release of Season Five (our balance team is always eager to see what you have to say!) and also provides a chance to follow on with a few other meaningful changes, such as:

  • Granting Ranked Rewards based on the Highest Rank you achieve during a season vs. Final Rank. We mentioned investigations were underway in our post on Monday, and we’re excited that the first wave of actions needed to complete this work were included with the server maintenance from June 14th. Ranked Rewards are tracked and granted via the server, so this was an important first move to take. Next steps include updates to the client to support this change within the UI.
  • Updates to queue dodging. You can read more about our plans in the Season Five release notes, and some of these changes are currently tracking for our July update.
  • Balancing & bug fixing. We’ll be paying close attention to what we hear from you about the Season Five build.

[h3]Late Summer Patch [/h3]
Major updates like Season Five add a huge amount of content and changes across the board and also provide a great opportunity to keep the game fresh. Our Public Update Previews help us collect and respond to major issues beforehand, but we also expect to “fine tune ” and continually support throughout a season via smaller targeted patches.

Still in the works, but we’re keeping eyes on a late summer patch to light up some Seasonal Events, and also to further iterate as your feedback and input shakes out.

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[h2]Pick Up a Copy![/h2]
Starting TODAY through June 19th, get Age of Empires IV from Steam at a 40% discount!



Server Maintenance - Wednesday, June 14



WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers)
WHEN: Wednesday, June 14 @ 2:00p PT / 5:00p ET / 21:00 UTC (Countdown)
EST. DOWNTIME: 1-2 HOURS

[h3]GAMES & PLATFORMS IMPACTED[/h3]
[h3]OBJECTIVES[/h3]
  • Routine server updates and maintenance.

[h3]DETAILS[/h3]This coming Wednesday, June 14th, 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!

Age of Empires IV – Season Five Update 7.0.5861

[previewyoutube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRWZ20tMe_w[/previewyoutube]

We’re turning up the heat in Season Five with Map Monsters: Summer Party Edition! Scout the land and scour the sea in search for the elusive Wild Man and mysterious Dragon Turtle in our Summer Party event! Start a match off strong in Empire Wars – a new, quick-to-action game mode where players start with a burgeoning empire of pre-built buildings and villagers already tasked to resources. But that’s not all: We’ve packed this update with loads of new content and features, ready for you to dive in starting June 15th!

A few highlights include:
  • Three new maps: Golden Heights, Migration, and Volcanic Island!
  • The start of Ranked Season Five, bringing with it new rewards and an updated map pool rotation!
  • Team Voice Chat – strategize with your friends in-match with the new team voice chat! Or use the speech-to-text feature to more easily send communications to your team!
  • Visual upgrades, and performance-related improvements!
  • New trade updates based directly on community feedback!
  • New unique options for every civilization! From unique tech to unique units, we’re making design changes so that each civilization’s personality shines through!
  • Additional support for mods that make it easier for everyone in the lobby to start the match.
  • … and a whole lot of bug fixes & balance changes!
💬 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

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!


[hr][/hr]
◆Update 7.0.5861◆
[hr][/hr]
[h2]Map Monsters: Summer Party Edition[/h2]
[h3]Summer Party Event[/h3]
There be monsters! Map Monsters are making a splash in our Summer Party Event for Season Five from June 15th through July 20th!

Search for the elusive Wild Man on Black Forest and Marshland maps or spy the mysterious Dragon Turtle in the seas of Archipelago and Boulder Bay! You might even spot them in a Ranked game!

The first Villager to approach the Wild Man, or Fishing Boat to near the Dragon Turtle, will receive a special boon: a permanent and significant increase to its gather rate!

Jump on in for special challenge rewards to earn event-exclusive Profile Portraits, Coat of Arms, and banners.



[h2]Ranked Season Five[/h2]
[h3]Ranked Play[/h3]
To arms! Ranked play kicks off Season Five on June 16th at 10:00 am PDT (17:00 UTC)! Age up through the ranks and earn your rewards before the season ends October 23rd at 11:59 pm PDT (Oct 24th at 06:59 UTC)!


[h3]Season Five Map Pools[/h3]
We’re refreshing the ranked map pools once again with a new rotation including the first appearance of Marshland and bringing back some maps we haven’t seen for a while such as The Pit.

Your feedback in action! We listened to lots of community feedback during our last Public Update Preview (PUP) and have implemented changes to our map rotation from what was previewed in the PUP. Notably, we heard you loved the new maps Golden Heights and Volcanic Island so much, we’re bringing them directly into the pool!

We’re also trying something a little different this season. Now through July 20th, our two Map Monsters will be visible on select maps. For the first time, our Map Monsters will also be included on Ranked maps!

1v1 Ranked Map Pool for Season Five
  • Boulder Bay ( Map Monster)
  • Dry Arabia
  • Golden Heights (New Map)
  • Hideout
  • High View
  • Hill & Dale
  • Marshland ( Map Monster)
  • The Pit
  • Volcanic Island (New Map)
Team Ranked Map Pool for Season Five
  • Boulder Bay ( Map Monster)
  • Danube River
  • Dry Arabia
  • French Pass
  • High View
  • Hill & Dale
  • Lipany
  • Marshland ( Map Monster)
  • Volcanic Island (New Map)
Build Spotlight

[h2]New Game Mode: Empire Wars[/h2]
Empire Wars is a new, quick-to-action game mode for Age of Empires IV. Players start their game with a burgeoning empire, ready to dive into combat or advance to the next Age! Available in custom and skirmish games, the player starts with a variety of buildings alongside a distribution of working villagers which creates a foothold on the map for players to expand from. Villagers will already be busy working farms, chopping trees, and mining gold and stone.

Empire Wars has the same win conditions as Standard game mode and is available on all maps. No starting town is the same. Will your empire prevail?



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.