Age of Empires II (2013) News

We're thrilled to announce that a much-anticipated patch for the ranked play Elo system is live right now in our open beta branch!

We hope to push this patch to general release as soon as possible, but we need a bunch of games played in order to make sure everything works... and that's where you come in!

Here's how you can join the open beta right now and help us test this patch:

1. From your Library screen in Steam, right-click on Age of Empires II: HD Edition and select Properties.
   
2. Click on the Betas tab.
   
3. Click the drop-down arrow and select "Open Beta."
   
4. Wait for updates to finish and launch the game.
   
5. Play a LOT of ranked games, and report any bugs to our official report thread: Report bugs here!

The more games you play, the more data we get to make sure everything's stable and working great! Thanks to everyone in the community for their patience and participation as we worked to bring you the best Age of Empires II experience we can!


Known issue: Please note that, as with most betas, those on the beta branch won't be able to play with people on the general release branch. Accepting an invitation to a game on a different branch can cause a crash.

Today's Deal: Save 80% on Age of Empires II HD!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Thursday at 10AM Pacific Time

Today's Deal: Save 80% on Age of Empires II HD!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends Thursday at 10AM Pacific Time

If you like hearing audio taunts, don’t forget to turn them on in the Options Menu!

With the latest Patch update the "Allow Audio Taunts" setting will now save and function correctly like the other settings on that screen.

Patch 5.7 is now live and thank you for participating in the Open Beta! Your continued support ensures that every build is ready for live release, we are very excited to bring these changes to the full community. The new discussion thread can be found here and we look forward to hearing your feedback! Thanks and have fun!



General Community Bug Fixes:

• Addressed a desync found when file transferring custom maps
  
• Advancing through replay chapters should no longer cause a desync
  
• Visibility settings should no longer cause a desync
  
• Pressing escape/enter in the lobby password text field should now function correctly
  
• Co-op teams should now display correctly in game and on the post-game screens
  
• Co-op players should be able to ready correctly on the first try
  
• Restore game and save lists should now correctly show DLC requirement icons
  
• Audio taunts setting now saves to the players profile correctly
  
• Some localized text clipping issues were addressed
  

Lobby Improvements:

• Players should no longer be able to join fake lobbies
  
• Players should now correctly time out if attempting to join an invalid lobby
  
• Players should no longer crash when excepting an invite from a custom campaign
  
• Players should now correctly cancel joining a lobby even when selected quickly
  
• Lobby should no longer crash when kicking players who are in the Tech Tree
  
• Lobby settings should now remember the team random option
  
• Lobby settings should no longer appear blank after disabling DLCs
  
• Lobby names should now scale in font size based on title length
  
• Lobby button sound effects should now play when changing names
  
• Lobby reset button now has a sound effect when pressed
  
• Lobby data set icon should now maintain the correct icon on subsequent loads
  
• Lobby browser custom scenario setting has been added to the game type filter
  
• Lobby browser location setting now has the any option at the top
  
• Lobby browser location setting should no longer appear blank after selecting reset
  
• Lobby browser standard victory filter should now function correctly
  

Gameplay Improvements:

• Starting a game with mods should no longer encounter a rare crash
  
• Under attack text notifications now play a chat sound
  
• Villagers should now lure animals to the town center more frequently
  
• Trade carts should no longer lose their gold when pressing the stop hotkey
  
• Lock teams should now disable tributing to enemy player in single player
  
• Garrison unit UI button should now be the correct size
  
• Treaty warnings should now be displayed when building inappropriately
  
• Tech tree should now close correctly after opening it with F2
  
• Campaign objective window tabs are no longer too low
  
• Campaign intro slides audio no longer becomes misaligned when using alt tab
  
• Campaign Honfoglalas now has the correctly objectives
  
• Campaign Dos Pilas no longer has a gate that disappears after the first objective
  
• Campaign Dracula 4 and 5 now have correct enemy player colours
  
• Campaign Bapheus no longer triggers diplomacy after killing Bey Metin
  

Balance Improvements:

• Condottiero now have unique armor class (only resisting bonus damage from gunpowder units, not from other anti-infantry attacks)
  
• Condottiero -1 pierce armor (from 1 to 0)
  
• Condottiero -1 attack (from 10 to 9)
  
• Elite Battle Elephant cost increased from 800f 500g to 1200f 900g
  
• Elite Battle Elephant research time increased from 80s to 100s
  
• Malay Battle elephants 30% cheaper (rather than 25%)
  
• Elite Karambit -1 attack (from 8 to 7)
  
• (Elite) Battle Elephant blast radius -0.1 (from 0.5 to 0.4)
  
• (Elite) Camel Archer -5 HP (from 60/65 to 55/60 without Bloodlines)
  
• (Elite) Camel Archers -2 armor vs Camels (from 2 to 0)
  
• (Elite) Camel Archers -2 armor vs anti-cavalry archer attacks (from 2 to 0)
  
• (Elite) Camel Archers -2 attack vs Rams (from 2 to 0)
  
• Ethiopians lose the free Halberdier upgrade
  
• Howdah cost +200f (from 200f 300w to 400f 300w)
  
• Howdah effect reduced from +1/+2 armor to +1/+1 armor
  
• Arquebus increases projectile speed of Bombard Cannons and Bombard towers by +0.2 (from 0 to 0.2, used to be 0.5 prior to patch 5.2)
  
• Organ Gun +1 spread damage (from 1 to 2)
  
• (Elite) Arambai -0.05 speed (from 1.35 to 1.3)
  
• (Elite) Arambai -1 attack
  
• Elite Arambai -2 armor vs anti-cavalry archer attacks (from 2 to 0)
  
• Slavs farm bonus now properly works after researching Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart
  
• Chatras effect increased from +30 HP to +50 HP
  
• Eagle Warrior training time +3s (from 32s to 35s)
  
• Eagle Warrior -0.05 speed (from 1.2 to 1.15)
  
• Anti-camel bonus increased for all anti-cavalry units (except camels)
  
• Malians lose free Gold Shaft Mining