New Year, New Opportunities: Age IV Patch & 1v1 Ranked Seasons Preview
UPDATE: We're incredibly excited to preview Ranked Seasons and gather your feedback! We planned to start our event on January 20th; however, our villagers need to gather a few more resources. We're targeting the week of January 24th to get started, but we'll be in touch when we have more specifics. In the meantime, we have reopened sign up - become an Age Insider for your chance to join this preview!
2021 was a huge year for World’s Edge and Relic Entertainment with the release of Age of Empires IV! As we enter a new year, we’re grateful for the opportunity to continue building experiences and learning with our Age community.
To jump straight into this year with you, we are excited to announce that we’ll be focusing on two exciting efforts this month.
- It’s our goal to make the game better and better over time, and January brings with it our next patch. With each patch, we aim to work toward one of our core goals: Making Age of Empires IV fun and fair to play, regardless of your skill level or preferred game mode. This month, we’ll be introducing key balance changes and bug fixes based on your feedback. You can find a summary of some of the planned changes below, and the full list of patch notes is soon to follow. As always, we’ll be keeping an eye on your thoughts and feedback.
- Last year we shared our first Age of Empires IV Roadmap, outlining some of the big beats planned for the first few months of 2022. Later this month, you’ll be able to experience one of those features for the first time – as part of our 1v1 Ranked Seasons Closed Preview. As we continue to grow Age of Empires IV, we don’t want to lose sight of something that’s made the game so special: your feedback! We cannot wait for another chance to preview what’s up-and-coming with you.
[h2]January Patch[/h2]
The upcoming January patch will focus on pointed balance changes and bug fixes across a variety of civilizations with the goal of addressing some of the most critical issues faced by each. We’re addressing a sampling of high-profile player feedback related to the Mongol civilization and Fire Lancer unit feeling overpowered, as well as resolving several Delhi Sultanate bugs to ensure the civilization’s distinct mechanics shine through.
You can tune in for a stream next week where the development team will talk in more depth on the purpose behind each change! Make sure to keep an eye on our official Age social channels for timing.
We’re excited to share the January Patch with you very soon, and even more importantly, we look forward to reading through your feedback as we continue to balance the game. As you may already know from the Age IV Community Roadmap, we have a big update planned for the spring, and we’re also looking to introduce other improvements in the short term with a patch planned for February!
[h2]1v1 Ranked Seasons Closed Beta[/h2]
If there’s one thing we know, it’s that Age players are eager to demonstrate their skills in battle! This spring, we’ll be introducing 1v1 Ranked Seasons, which will allow you to compete against other players and advance through ranked divisions to receive exclusive rewards.
While ranked play has long been a component of Age games, Age of Empires IV will be the first title to introduce structured seasons and we expect this tradition to only grow. As we start out, we’ll be implementing Ranked Seasons for 1v1 matches, but we look forward to growing our offerings as we hear more of what you want!
Be one of the first to try out 1v1 Ranked Seasons and help us prepare to launch this feature by joining the Ranked Seasons Closed Preview next week from January 20th to 28th! To prepare for this, you only need to complete a few quick steps:
- Sign up as an Age Insider.
- Confirm your communication preferences.
- Ensure your DxDiag is uploaded (This is a good step to check even if you have a pre-existing account!).
- Wait to hear from us by email with access steps and instructions on how to best provide feedback and bug reports.
- Note: We will provide you with an access key for the Age of Empires IV beta product, which will be used to download and launch this preview.
- Note: This opportunity is best suited for players who enjoy the Ranked game mode; however, if you’re interested in trying Ranked and helping us prepare for its release, your time and effort are appreciated!
- Note: We will provide you with an access key for the Age of Empires IV beta product, which will be used to download and launch this preview.
