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Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition News

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition — Hotfix 45185



Here we go! We appreciate your patience as we bundle up and test another package of fixes for Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition. Today, our focus is on the prevalent crashes and errors disrupting the community while sneaking a few balance changes in for our new civilizations. As is our modus operandi, here are the highlights:
  • Updated how the game utilizes CPU and GPU resources to avoid taxing systems not running Vsync.
  • Fixed numerous crashes reported by the community.
  • Fixed an out-of-sync error when spectating a match with fog of war disabled.
  • Fixed an animation hitch when advancing from one Age to the next.
  • The tech tree now displays the correct health values of units and buildings.
  • Buildings can no longer be overlapped when you can't see the enemy's structure.
  • Fixed issues which prevented units and secondary projectiles from dealing their intended damage.
  • Adjustments to the Burgundian Coustillier and to Sicilian bonuses and unique technologies.
  • Numerous localization fixes.
  • Ongoing investigation into more community reports!

As always, your feedback plays a huge part in setting the course for the game, so keep it coming! Visit the forums, join the Discord, and get involved in the community!

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Forum
🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord

Watch for more updates, and be sure to check out the 'Ongoing Issues' section (below) to see what's at the top of our list in the month(s) to come!

—The Age of Empires Team

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◆ HOTFIX 45185 ◆
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GAME
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[/hr][h3]Stability & Performance[/h3]
  • Updated how GPU and CPU resources are consumed when running the game. When Vsync is disabled, the FPS will be capped at the monitor’s refresh rate rather than drawing upon all available resources.
  • Placing a horizontal or vertical gate on top of a Villager will no longer crash the game. (Placing an angled gate will continue to not crash the game.)
  • Fixed an out-of-sync error when spectating a game with the fog of war disabled.
  • Fixed an animation hitch when advancing from one Age to the next.
  • Fixed a crash when constructing a Stable while the chat narrator is enabled and the game language is set to French.
  • Fixed a crash when starting any game as the Sicilians or Burgundians while using the “Shuffle” music playlist.
  • Fixed a spectator crash when counting the number of idle villagers.

[h3]UI[/h3]
  • Updated the Sicilian civilization tooltip to clarify that Serjeants are only able to build and repair Donjons, and cannot (as was improperly stated) repair buildings, siege units, and ships.
  • Added missing map icons in the Quick Play menu for the five new maps added to the game via Update 44725.
  • The tech tree now displays the correct health values of units and buildings.
  • Corrected the tech tree tooltips of the unique units for several civilizations.
  • Improved the legibility of tech tree text for the two new civilizations: the Burgundians and Sicilians.
  • Fixed the truncation of certain text strings throughout the Lords of the West campaigns.
  • Fixed the date and timestamp of news events displayed in-game.
  • The notification when you complete an event challenge now scales more appropriately when it contains longer text strings.


GAMEPLAY
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  • Villagers will no longer fight back against Feudal Age Scout Cavalry or Castle Age Eagle Scouts when not ordered to do so.
  • Villagers will now automatically move to finish nearby buildings placed in the fog of war when finished with their current project.
  • Building foundations can once again be placed over unexplored areas as long as it includes some area that has been explored. Note that you'll still be restricted from placing foundations in fully-unexplored areas of the map.
  • Building foundations can no longer begin construction if overlapping other structures or foundations that aren't within a player's line of sight.
  • Fixed an issue which prevented Turtle Ships and Mangonels from dealing their intended damage, and some secondary projectiles from dealing any damage in certain circumstances. This fix should also ensure that Ballista Elephants can cut through forests, as intended.
  • Fixed an issue which would prevent the construction of Gates due to a failed obstruction check, despite there being no obstructions.
  • Defeated players can no longer launch surprise attacks with garrisoned units while spectating the remainder of their match.


CIVILIZATION BALANCE
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[/hr][h3]Burgundians[/h3]
🡒 UNITS
  • Coustillier: Reduced charge damage from +35 ▶ +25.
  • Elite Coustillier: Reduced charge damage from +40 ▶ +30.
  • Coustillier [Standard & Elite]: No longer deals double damage against units with the ‘Archer’ armor class.

[h3]Sicilians[/h3]
🡒 CIVILIZATION
  • On Nomad-style maps, the first Town Center to be built no longer benefits from the Sicilian construction speed bonus.
  • The civilization’s resistance to bonus damage is no longer applied to siege weapons.
  • Serjeants can no longer construct Donjons in the Battle Royale game mode.
🡒 TECHNOLOGIES
  • First Crusade: Reduced the number of Serjeants spawned per Town Center from 10 ▶ 7.
  • Scutage: Now awards gold to each ally based on the size of their own military rather than the military count of the researching player.


LOBBIES & MATCHMAKING
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  • Fixed an issue which would prevent the sending of messages after finding a Quick Play match.


LOCALIZATION
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  • Added localized text for the countdown timer that appears in the Attila 4 (‘A Barbarian Betrothal’) mission.
  • Fixed instances where the objective text would not display localized variants during The Grand Dukes of the West 2 (‘The Wolf and the Lion’) campaign mission.
  • Updated the legibility of certain diacritics on the e and i letters which were difficult to read.
  • CN: Updated the names of the Lords of the West campaigns to display the proper headers on the Western Europe selection screen.
  • DE: Updated the names of the Lords of the West campaigns to appear visually consistent with other campaign titles.
  • FR: Added missing translations to the Sicilian history page.
  • IT: Fixed a mismatched text and audio line in the outro cinematic of the The Grand Dukes of the West 1 (‘A Kingdom Divided’) campaign mission.


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◆ ONGOING INVESTIGATION ◆
[hr][/hr]As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates. Here is a brief update from our Production team regarding some of what is still in the works:
  • Memory Crashes: Some players have reported memory crashes that require additional information to address. If you are experiencing regular crashes of any kind, please reach out to our support team for solutions and to provide our team more information about the issue.
  • Unable to Reconnect: We are working on a solution in addition to improvements to ensure that players can quickly and easily reconnect to their games when they disconnect or drop due to a network or Xbox Live issue. We hear you and recognize the frustration this can cause.
  • Scenario Editor: direct_placement or grouped_by_team affects player land generation in consecutive maps. If direct_placement or grouped_by_team is used when generating a map in the editor, additional maps generated in the same editor session will not do so properly. Until this can be fixed (tentatively aiming for the quarterly update), a workaround is to restart the title to ensure maps are generated properly.

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!
Note that this list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of every known issue we’re tracking. The above is provided as insight into 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.


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◆ MOD WARNING ◆
[hr][/hr]Please note that custom mods may not be compatible with the latest game update. If you encounter performance or stability issues after your mods are disabled, please visit our support page for assistance!

Ranked Map Rotation – February 09!



Here is the latest Ranked Map Rotation as determined by the developer picks and community vote. For the next two weeks, you’ll be able to pick from the new set of maps listed below!

Map pools as of: 6p Pacific (9p ET / 20:00 UTC / 22:00 CEST) on Tuesday, February 09 to Tuesday, February 23
👤 1v1 MAP POOL
This week's 1v1 Community Map Picks are in BOLD.
AFRICAN CLEARING
ARABIA
ARENA
ATACAMA
BALTIC
SOCOTRA
GOLD RUSH


👥 TEAM GAME MAP POOL
This week's TG Community Map Picks are in BOLD.
AMAZON TUNNEL
ARABIA
ARENA
ATACAMA
BLACK FOREST
HIDEOUT
ISLANDS
MEGARANDOM
NOMAD


👤 1v1 DEATHMATCH POOL


ACROPOLIS
ARABIA
FOUR LAKES
GHOST LAKE
GOLDEN PIT
GOLDEN SWAMP
KILIMANJARO
SERENGETI
VALLEY


👥 TEAM DEATHMATCH POOL


ARABIA
CENOTES
GHOST LAKE
GOLDEN PIT
GOLDEN SWAMP
KILIMANJARO
LOMBARDIA
OASIS
VALLEY

VOTE! Your Ranked Map Rotation starting February 09!



It’s that time again! Visit the official Age of Empires forum to vote for your Ranked map pool for the next two weeks.

This Week's Dev Picks
[h3]1v1 Random Maps[/h3]
✔ ARABIA ✔ ARENA ✔ BALTIC ✔ SOCOTRA
[h3]Team Games[/h3]
✔ ARABIA ✔ ARENA ✔ ATACAMA ✔ BLACK FOREST ✔ ISLANDS ✔ NOMAD
Cast Your Vote Now!

To participate in the community ranked map pool vote, you will need to login to the official Age forum using your free Microsoft account. Then, click the images below to jump to this week’s polls.






:alertalert: Polls are open until NOON Pacific on Sunday, February 07 (or 3:00p Eastern / 19:00 UTC), so be sure to cast your vote and check back to see which maps emerge victorious!

Join the Age of Empires II: DE 2021 New Year Celebration!

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With another year behind us, we’re hosting a party to celebrate all the adventures that lie ahead—and you’re all invited! Come join us in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition as we celebrate (albeit a bit late) the start of a new year (and new update) to the game!

We’ve prepared a bunch of new, celebration-themed goodies for you to unlock and enjoy over the next few weeks, so don’t miss the 2021 NEW YEAR CELEBRATION EVENT!
  • Unlock three new Celebratory Profile Icons!
  • Unlock a new Age Up Celebration with Fireworks and Cheering!
  • Unlock a New Year Celebration Scene for your Town Center!
  • Unlock Fireworks for your Research Complete and Building Upgrades!





New Rewards!
Starting TODAY through FEBRUARY 8, complete the in-game tasks within the time limit to unlock all the New Year celebration goodies! The first challenge unlocks a new profile icon and is required to save all of your unlocks:
🎯 Sign into Xbox Live.
🏆 Unlocks the Serjeant with Balloon-Sword profile icon.
💾 *Required* if you want to save any rewards unlocked during the event!
Each of the following challenges must be unlocked in order and on separate days:
🔒 Win a Standard or MP game playing as one of the following civs: Spanish, Ethiopians, Japanese or Incas.
🧱 [Mod] Unlocks the New Year Celebration Scene for the Town Center.

🔒 Create 21 Hand Cannoneers in any one game.
🏆 Unlocks the Flemish Militia Cheers profile icon.

🔒 Advance to Castle Age from Dark Age within 21 minutes.
🧱 [Mod] Unlocks the Age Up Fireworks and Cheering Celebration.

🔒 Create 21 Cannon Galleons or Elite Cannon Galleons in any one game.
🏆 Unlocks the Coustillier Firework profile icon.

🔒 Cumulatively construct 21 Bombard Towers in any games.
🧱 [Mod] Unlocks the Fireworks replacement for Research Complete and Building Upgrades.


Keep It All!

Remember: if you sign in to Xbox Live during the event, you’ll get to keep all of the mods and profile icons you’ve achieved! Sign in, earn your rewards, and enjoy the 2021 New Year Celebration event!

—The Age of Empires Team


Event Wallpapers


[h3]:savedisk:  1920x1080 || 1920x1200 || 2560X1080[/h3]

Server Maintenance - Monday, February 1



WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers)
WHEN: Monday, February 1 @ 2:00p PT / 5:00p ET / 22:00 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 Monday, February 1st, 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!