Age of Mythology: Retold Update 18.52475

Welcome, Age of Mythology: Retold community to another packed patch! This update brings some new features to check out, including new loading screens to help get you hyped for your matches, several Gauntlet updates (we’ve been reading the forums!), easier access to your Friends options, and of course, bug fixes and balance updates for the Japanese and other pantheons!

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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Thanks again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Mythology: Retold a success thus far!

—The Age of Mythology Team
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       ◆ Update 18.52475 ◆

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[h2]New Loading Screens[/h2]
Players’ collections of Major God Portraits have been growing from participation in the Community Event, the Legacy God Portraits DLC, and the Premium Tsukyomi portrait. Now there is a new place to show off these portraits of the Gods! When you play a 1v1 match, you will now see the full-size portraits to prepare for the clash between Gods that is about to happen!

Go head-to-head in 1 v 1 with your favorite portrait on display!

Team games are not left out! Playing matches with two teams up to 6v6 in size, you will also see a different new Loading Screen. Your portrait choices are now more prominently featured here, and the focus has shifted to showcase the lineup for the upcoming battle.

Get the gang together in an all-out Team Brawl!

Developer Note: We are aware that the Waiting for Other Players overlay can cover up the screen in multiplayer matches, and are working to address that in a future patch.

You will experience these new loading screens while playing any modes that use the Skirmish type format, including single-player (except for places like Campaign) and multiplayer. In other situations, the loading screens will fall back to those you are already familiar with. The new loading screens will not show if any player has a team set to random.

You can choose not to show these new loading screens if you prefer the format of the other existing screens. There is a new setting found by navigating to UI > Enable Alternate Match Start Loading Screen. This setting will be enabled by default. You can choose to toggle the setting off to return to the previous visual behavior.

You can opt out of the new multi-player loading screens if you prefer the original format.

[h2]Social Features at your Fingertips[/h2]
Now it is much easier to keep the fun going! The Friends social panel is now available next to your Chat. Invite people to be your friend while waiting, or after a match!

Access your Social panel by selecting the person icon next to your chat window.

[h2]Arena of the Gods – Gauntlet Mode Updates[/h2]
We have been following the discussions about the Gauntlet mode as players have dived in and faced the new chaotic challenges. We have some new updates for Gauntlet mode to share with you as part of this latest patch! Some of the changes include more player choice around game modes, new Chaos Events, new Favor Stash items, Co-Op improvements, many balance changes, and fixes for some issues. Thank you to the community for your feedback so far. It was also great to see our modding community jump in to create mods that fixed some of the issues now corrected in this patch. We are continuing to look at feedback and hope players enjoy the new updates to the Gauntlet game mode!

[h3]Choose to Play Your Way[/h3]
We have heard your feedback about preferences around playing less of either Deathmatch or Lightning during Gauntlet playthroughs. You can now choose while creating each Labyrinth to reduce the frequency of these game modes. For players who enjoy the current variety, you don’t need to opt into the changes.

The new “Lower Chance of …” Settings.

When you enable these options, they will reduce the frequency of that game mode by swapping out at least 50% of occurrences for Standard mode. The final Boss Node will always be swapped if it would have appeared as a mode you have said you want to see less of.

[h3]Four New Chaos Events[/h3]
Insect Invasion: A shift of winds has drawn Pestilence into your buildings. When this event occurs, it will trigger a modified version of Pestilence at every Town Center on the map for 25 seconds.
Dank Chaos: The Kappa are here for you. Enter their swamps at your peril. When this event occurs, it spawns multiple large areas of swampland with Kappa around the map.
Conscription of the Peasants: All players gain one or more additional villagers at each Town Center. This Chaos Event is a respite from Chaos, but don’t let that fool you! All players earn the same economic boost, so make sure to put your conscripted peasants to work quickly!
Cluck-Cluck-BOOM! Beware the chickens! They are here for revenge after their kind have been feasted on during the battles between Pantheons. When this Chaos Event activates, you will see many chickens spawn all across the map. The chickens will explode, throwing everything around them after a short time. Carefully step away and don’t look them in the eye!

[h3]New Favor Stash Items[/h3]
During this update, we have added 5 new Favor Stash items.
Exchange Scout Program: (Level: 50 Cost: 100) Summon a random scout unit.
Fortified Perimeter: (Level: 55 Cost: 800) Spawns Fortified Sentinels at all your controlled Town Centers.
Mythic Rejuvenation: (Level: 60 Cost: 800) For a short time your units are healed and buildings are repaired near each of our Town Centers.
Bountiful Trickle: (Level: 65 Cost: 1000) Gain a small quantity of all resource types over time.
Glutton for Chaos: (Level: 70 Cost: 1200) Trigger the next Chaos Event.

[h3]Gauntlet Balance Changes[/h3]
Changes listed here may also apply to Arena of the Gods Story Mode and the Daily Celestial Challenge if the listed items appear in those modes.
When using Kastor as a Legend while playing as the Japanese, you can now make use of the free and fast Age Up available to other Pantheons.
All Legends now apply benefits from the Arena of the Gods bonuses that were available to Kastor! This includes the following:
All Legends now give extra starting bonus resources at the start of Gauntlet matches.
All Legends grant the free and fast Age Up.
All Legends now apply the bonus +5 population limit.
All Legends now spawn some thematic bonus units similar to how Kastor spawns 3 Murmillos.
Hoplite units are spawned with Gargarensis, Circe, and Kamos.
Axeman units are spawned with Amanra, Theris, and Setna.
Berserk units are spawned with Reginleif, King Folstag, and Halogi.
Dao Swordsman are spawned with Yan Feifeng, Chi You, and Nuchou.
Kamos has gained a small bonus to his damage. Kamos’s hand attack now deals 6x damage bonus against Myth units.
The Enemy Incursion Chaos Event has been rebalanced to modify the quantity of units and the chance of different units appearing.
Age 2 myth units have twice the chance to appear as other units.
Age 2 myth units can now appear in groups of 1 to 3.
Age 3 myth units can now spawn in groups of 1 to 2.
Age 4 myth units will now always spawn as single units.
Titans can now appear as a Titan from any Pantheon instead of only the Greek Titan. Titans still only spawn during the Enemy Incursion on Legendary difficulty.
Caladria can no longer spawn as one of the possible options.
Chaos Events will now never repeat the same event twice in a row.
Reduced the damage done by the Fault Line Chaos Event. This weaker version of Earthquake’s damage has been reduced from 10 → 9 damage per hit.
Reduced the damage done by the Rage of Zeus Chaos Event. This weaker version of Lightning Storm has been reduced from 20 → 16 damage per hit.
The Children of Nidhogg Chaos Event will now not occur when there are only 2 players. This reduces the risk of spawning too close to a single player. The children were a little too hostile and could aggro onto a player, wiping them out early in a game.
Child of Nidhogg units have had their LOS reduced from 40 to 20 to make them less likely to rush distant enemies.
Reduced the chance that Gauntlet matches may end with no interaction, mainly through the above modifications to Chaos Events.
When a Player Blessing Event occurs, you are twice as likely to gain a Blessing instead of resources (66% chance).
When you do gain resources instead of a Blessing from a Player Blessing Event, the resources awarded are twice as likely (66% chance) to be two different resources.

[h3]Make Your Stand Together – Co-Op Updates[/h3]
While playing through Gauntlet as the person invited to join a Host, you will gain XP and Favor Stash currency. The gains to XP unlock new Favor Stash items and increase your Favor Stash spend and save limits.
You can now use the Favor Stash while playing in the Co-Op mode.
When you are invited to participate in another player’s Labyrinth, you will now gain access to all the non-Eternal Blessings that are available to the Host player. This means playing through a Gauntlet will provide more shared progression as the Host chooses which nodes to complete with a Co-op partner.
On the Victory screen as the non-Host player in a Gauntlet match, you will now see the reward unlocked by the Host. The non-Eternal rewards unlocked as part of a Labyrinth can be used during subsequent Nodes played with the same Host for the duration of that same Labyrinth.
Joining as a co-op player as part of another player’s game will no longer reset your equipped Blessing choices in your own Labyrinth.

[h3]Other Gauntlet Changes and Fixes[/h3]
Enemy Blessing events now appear in chat as a message from an enemy player to easily see which events are blessings gained by the enemy.
Child of Nidhogg now appears as a unique name on the Children of Nidhogg Chaos Event units.
Attack Move can now be used against units spawned during the Enemy Incursion and Children of Nidhogg Chaos Events.
Children of Nidhogg will now spawn correctly if there was water or other obstructions present in the center of the map.
Some Eternal rewards can be unlocked in multiple game modes. If you earn one of these rewards while the reward is at the end of your current Labyrinth, a pop-up will now show to let you know. You can then choose to continue your current Labyrinth or start a new Labyrinth.
Timers will now update in real time while playing Co-Op and viewing the Gauntlet Event UI. The Gauntlet Event UI is available through the Game Summary screen.
The Traitor God power can no longer target the Gauntlet Legend Reginleif.
Fixed a bug that caused the Heroic Rarity of Loki’s Skillful Scions Blessing to activate the Mythical Rarity equivalent.
Players who choose the Minor God Rushou can now access the Favor Stash button without needing to research Autumn of Abundance. The Favor Stash button for the Keyboard and Mouse UI has shifted one column to the left.

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.

[h2]Minor Update 18.54786[/h2]
Small update to help address an issue that caused some PlayStation players to experience an in game stutter which presented as a performance issue.