Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition News

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!

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 06 to Tuesday, October 20

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

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

WHAT: Server Maintenance (Matchmaking Servers)
WHEN: Wednesday, October 7 @ 2:00p PT / 5:00p ET / 21:00 UTC (Countdown)
EST. DOWNTIME: 1-2 HOURS

[h3]GAMES & PLATFORMS IMPACTED[/h3]

• Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  
• Age of Empires: Definitive Edition (Steam / Microsoft Store)
  

[h3]OBJECTIVES[/h3]

• Prepping the Live game servers to support the upcoming Age III: DE launch.

[h3]DETAILS[/h3]This coming Wednesday, October 7th, the platform team will be taking the multiplayer servers down for regular maintenance. This will unfortunately disrupt any matches in progress and prevent the creation of new matches during the down time, so we recommend wrapping up any games at least 10 minutes before the maintenance window.

[h3]:alertalert: DURING THIS TIME, YOU CAN STILL LAUNCH THE GAME, BUT WILL NOT BE ABLE TO MATCHMAKE OR ACCESS ANY ONLINE FEATURES.[/h3]

The downtime is expected to last between 1 and 2 hours. We will update 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!