Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition News

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Last week, the DE prophecy was fulfilled with Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, which launched on the Microsoft Store, Steam, and Xbox Gamepass for PC! To celebrate this momentous occasion, we've hand-picked some of our favorite aspects of Age of Empires III and fired them through time and space to a new era—all so you can unlock them during this month's Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition event!

As with all of our events, we've created a new set of challenges for you to complete over the course of the next two weeks, as well as exclusive profile icons and new visual mods to expand your game. All of this is a part of the AGE OF EMPIRES III: DEFINITIVE EDITION LAUNCH CELEBRATION!

• Unlock three new themed Profile Icons!
• Unlock Capybara Cannonballs for your Bombard Cannons!
  
• Unlock a bombastic Great Bombard statue for your Town Center!
  
• Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition owners can also unlock an exclusive visual mod that changes your Hand Cannoneers to Musketeers!

Starting TODAY through NOVEMBER 3rd, complete the in-game tasks within the time limit to unlock explosively fun themed goodies! Here are the challenges available over the next two weeks:

🎯 Sign into Xbox Live.
🏆 Unlocks the Musketeer profile icon.
💾 *Required* if you want to save any rewards unlocked during the event!

🔒 Earn Achievement "Imperial Age" in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition.
🧱 [Mod] Unlocks Hand Cannoneer visual replaced by Musketeer visual.
💾 Xbox Live Sign required in both games to verify achievement.
📝 The mod must be activated manually in Age II: DE when unlocked.

Each of the following challenges must be unlocked in order and on separate days:

🔒 Play Any Standard Game 
🧱 [Mod] Unlocks a statue of a Great Bombard under the Town Center.

🔒 Herd 8 livestock in one SP or MP game
🏆 Unlocks the Capybara profile icon.

🔒  Cumulatively deplete at least 5 Berry Bushes in games 
🧱 [Mod] Replaces Cannonballs with Capybaras.

🔒 Kill 5 enemy Villagers in one game 
🏆 Unlocks the Maceman profile icon.

🔒 Cumulatively build at least 50 Farms in games 
🧱 [Mod] Replaces Sounds of Gunpowder units with the sounds from Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition. 

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!

We hope you enjoy the Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Launch Celebration Event! And don’t forget to sign into Xbox Live to ensure you keep everything you unlock!

—The Age of Empires Team



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Happy October, Age fans!

As we move into the final stretch of the year, we’re continuing our monthly release schedule with another small changelist for the game. Today’s build focuses on some key Villager improvements identified by the community, AI improvements for hardcore players, and some audio fixes that benefit the modding community. As has also become the standard, it also comes with a new event: this time celebrating the recent launch of Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition with some exclusive crossover content for you to enjoy.

As many of you have guessed, next month is when we’re targeting the drop of our massive anniversary update! There’s still time to identify fixes and tweaks you’d like to see, so be sure to visit our discussion channels to leave your thoughts:

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

We hope you enjoy this month’s release, look forward to hearing from you, and can’t wait to see you on the battlefield!

—The Age of Empires Team



Here are some of the biggest highlights coming with this month's update:

[h3]Age of Empires III: DE Launch Celebration![/h3][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]🤍 OCTOBER 20 through NOVEMBER 3[/h3]

Exactly 14 years and 362 days since its arrival, Age of Empires III now has a Definitive Edition to usher in a new beginning for the youngest game in the franchise! We’re ecstatic to celebrate the launch of the new and improved game—so excited, in fact, that we only made you wait 5 days to join the fun! That’s because today marks the beginning of the October celebration, which is themed around the newest member of the family: Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition! So grab your favorite capybara and join in for two weeks of fun, games, and (of course) exclusive unlocks!

• Unlock three new Profile Icons, including legendary capy-boi, Barry!
• Unlock two new mods, including a Great Bombard Cannon statue for your Town Center and Capybara Projectiles for your siege machines.
  
• Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition owners can also unlock a third mod that changes your Hand Cannoneers to Musketeers!
• Unlock a new audio mod to add that special, Age III gunpowder sound to your shooty-bois!
  

▶︎ NEW REWARDS! Starting TODAY through NOVEMBER 3, complete in-game tasks to unlock a ton of themed goodies:

🎯 Sign into Xbox Live.
🏆 Unlocks the Musketeer profile icon.
💾 *Required* if you want to save any rewards unlocked during the event!

🔒 Earn the “Imperial Age” achievement in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition.
🏆 Unlocks a mod that replaces your Hand Cannoneers with Musketeers.
💾 Xbox Live Sign required in both games to verify achievement.
📝 The mod must be activated manually in Age II: DE when unlocked.

Each of the following challenges must be unlocked in order and on separate days:

🔒 Play any standard game.
🏆 Unlocks the Great Bombard Statue Town Center mod.

🔒 Herd 8 livestock in one single- or multiplayer game.
🏆 Unlocks the Capybara profile icon.

🔒 Cumulatively deplete at least 5 berry bushes in games.
🏆 Unlocks the Capybara Cannonball mod.

🔒 Kill 5 enemy villagers in one game.
🏆 Unlocks the Inca Maceman profile icon.

🔒 Cumulatively build at least 50 farms in games.
🏆 Unlocks the Age III Gunpowder Audio mod.

▶︎ KEEP IT FOREVER!!
Remember: if you sign in to Xbox Live at any point during the event, you’ll get to keep all of the mods and profile icons you’ve unlocked! Sign in, earn your rewards, and enjoy the celebration!

• Fixed an issue where Villagers which began working before the discovery of the Wheelbarrow and Hand Cart would not be issued the tools, and thus would not benefit from their increased efficiency, until re-tasked.
  
• Restarting a scenario which enables the ‘Villager Force Drop’ setting will no longer activate that setting in standard games when tasking Villagers to collect another resource.
  
• Fixed a rare issue where Villagers would not collect the full resource value from a mine. An example is where a stone mine would be depleted after collecting 349 of the 350 stone normally available.
  
• Fixed a rare issue where buildings would disappear in the fog of war layer of certain campaign missions with the “shared visibility” flag enabled.
  
• Units in the "Land Battles" Art of War scenario will no longer be invisible (and consequently, counterproductive to teaching the concepts at hand)—another symptom of the above bug.

[h3]General[/h3]

• Fixed a rare issue where the Extreme AI would, without any strategic reasoning or clear benefit, choose to deploy units to the left corner of the map.
  
• Fixed a rare issue where the Extreme AI would, in certain circumstances, adopt a passive, non-violent philosophy of war until attacked.
  

[h3]Scripting[/h3]

• sn-enable-patrol-attack now works correctly in combination with Town Size Attacks (TSA).

• Audio mods will now take effect immediately without the need to restart the game.
  
• Fixed an issue where modifying a unit's voice for a single civilization would silence that unit's voice for any other civilizations not also present in the mod package.

Please note that custom mods may not be compatible with the latest game update. If you are experiencing issues launching or playing the game after downloading the new build, try disabling your installed mods before trying again.

Still having trouble? Visit our support page!

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, October 20 to Tuesday, November 03

This week's 1v1 Community Map Picks are in BOLD.

This week's TG Community Map Picks are in BOLD.

Veterans of Age of Empires II saw how CaptureAge (CA) evolved during the lifespan of the original game: adding new features over time and growing to suit the needs of the community. With the release of the Definitive Edition, and in partnership with World’s Edge, the team behind CaptureAge has now built a new tool to help players and enthusiasts of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition spectate matches with ease. Today, we’re excited to share the progress being made on the next iteration of the CaptureAge tool: CaptureAge Preview!



CaptureAge Preview is the latest version of the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition overlay, and introduces three major additions for casters and viewers:

PRODUCTION QUEUE

Instead of showing how many of each unit is being queued, the HUD will now display the number of production buildings along with their production activity. Army compositions have also been refined and focused, and now display the primary unit and up to two additional, supporting units. This replaces the full army list—focusing instead on the primary makeup of a player’s forces rather than the straggler spearman the player built back in the Feudal Age to counter a Scout rush.

“NEXT AGE” PROGRESS

“Age” is in the name of the game. In addition to showing player progress towards the next Age, we are also showing the progress towards clicking up to the next age by displaying the Food, Gold, and building requirements/counts right next to it.

SMALLER UI

The Hidden Cup 3 overlay was designed with mobile devices in mind, but viewers have noted that it now feels too large. As a result, the text and panel size has been reduced slightly—maximizing the amount of action on screen while still being viewable on lower resolutions and smaller screens.

Starting today, the CaptureAge team is interested in hearing YOUR feedback about these changes! This week, you can view the new overlay put to use by three community shoutcasters—MembTV, NiliAoE, and T90Official—with plans to add more in the following weeks!

• Do you like the changes?
• Do you think this is not the right direction?
• Do you have an idea you’d like to see included in the overlay?

Give it a look and then join the discussion on the official CaptureAge Twitch, on reddit—where they discuss the latest features and feedback—and on the official CaptureAge Discord!

• CA on Reddit
• CA on Discord
• CA on Twitch

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

[h3]1v1 Random Maps[/h3]
✔ ARABIA
✔ ARCHIPELAGO
✔ ARENA 
✔ GHOST LAKE

[h3]Team Games[/h3]
✔ ARABIA
✔ ARENA
✔ BLACK FOREST
✔ NOMAD
✔ SERENGETI
✔ TEAM ISLANDS

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, October 18 (or 3:00p Eastern / 19:00 UTC), so be sure to cast your vote and check back to see which maps emerge victorious!