Age of Empires IV officially released on October 28th, and with our first patch officially released earlier this week, it’s time to turn their attention to what’s next for the title!
Later this calendar year, World’s Edge and Relic Entertainment will be introducing hundreds of balance changes, a variety of helpful bug fixes, and a few key features they have seen requested by players. Coming in the first half of 2022, they will be adding two new ways to enjoy Age of Empires IV, including user-generated content and tools allowing you to mod and bring your ideas to life.
World’s Edge and Relic Entertainment will also kick off Ranked Seasons in the first half of 2022. Ranked Seasons will span 12 weeks, allow players to compete head-to-head, climb the ranked ladder, and earn exclusive in-game rewards based on performance.
Winter 2021
On Monday, November 15th, 2021 they launched Patch 7989 to introduce fixes to Xbox Account linking, an issue with Mongol Town Center behavior, performance impacts when panning the camera, and some other tweaks. While this patch was smaller and more pointed, they are happy to share that they’re putting the finishing touches on a larger patch they will look to share soon.
In Winter 2021, they will be introducing hundreds of balance changes (literally!), a variety of helpful bug fixes, and a few key features they have seen requested by players. The team has been hard at work preparing this update, and they are appreciative to the community for lending their voice to the conversation.
- Make the choice to turn on and view in-game player scores, you’ll be able to enable in-game player scores on a case-by-case basis for custom lobby multiplayer and skirmish matches.
- Moved the Chinese Dynasty button and user interface to a less prominent position on the screen. You’ll now find it in the lower left-hand corner.
- The ability to view the map post-match is something everyone has asked for, and they began to make changes to allow you to do just that. Starting with the Winter 2021 update, you’ll be able to pan across the map of a completed match after finishing up your game – they will be looking to fold in additional options to allow you to easily switch back and forth between the completed map view and post-game stats in Spring 2022.
- Refinements made to the in-game mini-map to improve readability are also coming in Winter 2021. Improvements include reducing the size of icons, ensuring the Wonder icon on the mini-map matches the icon displayed in the HUD, increasing the size of the Primary Town Center in comparison to other Landmarks, and adjusting the color of certain resources.
For balance and bug fixing highlights:
- French Hulk ship tweaked to no longer rule the high seas.
- Crossbowmen, Spearman, and Elite Crossbowmen will pose a greater threat to Cavalry.
- Significantly reducing the cost of the Chinese civilization’s Repeater crossbow.
- Fix to HRE Prelate unit to allow them to continue inspiring after being pushed.
- Mongol “Superior Mobility” is adjusted to ensure the speed modifier is appropriately applied.
- Fix issued for the Rus civilization to eliminate infinite Relic duplication.
Spring 2022
Coming in Spring 2022, they will be adding two new ways to enjoy Age of Empires IV.
- User-Generated Content and tools allow you to bring your ideas to life. Not a mod maker yourself? No worries, you’ll still be able to enjoy the work of others — sampling their vision for unique maps, modes, and more. This will provide just another way to truly make history your story in Age of Empires IV.
- Spring 2022 will also see the start of Ranked Seasons. Ranked Seasons will span 12 weeks, allow players to compete head-to-head, climb the ranked ladder, and earn exclusive in-game rewards based on performance.
They will also be finalizing some minor improvements to the post-game map in Spring 2022, introducing the Patrol move you’ve been asking for, as well as exploring the inclusion of other features and fixes based on player feedback.
Looking Forward
While they are committed to bringing about the features and changes highlighted above, they will be also spending time with what the players are saying they want to see in Age of Empires IV in the future.
They are actively looking into the feedback below:
- Global Build Queue – This is a feature many have enjoyed in previous Age titles and would like to see in Age of Empires IV.
- Improvements to the Unit Stat card – Based on your feedback, they are looking into how they can better serve up the most meaningful stats at a glance.
- Hotkey Improvements – Hotkeys are a big component in competitive play and are a topic the community cares a great deal about. This is a bigger change and something that they are investigating from a few different angles, including a movement away from the grid system as well as implementing a few other options via hotkey selections.
- Taunts and Cheats – Part of the Age Legacy, they will be exploring what these elements would look (and sound!) like in Age of Empires IV.
- AI Difficulty – AI difficulty could use some tuning, specifically making the Easy AI less aggressive and boosting the challenge of the Hard AI.
- Waypoint Indicators – Another quality of life feature from previous Age titles, this is something many of us want to see returned to Age of Empires IV.
