Gameplay
AI Updates
- Fixed an issue that caused the AI to miscalculate the damage of buildings with garrisoned units. AI should no longer treat outposts as harmless if there are units inside.
- Mongol AI will place Blacksmith and some military production buildings near Ovoo when relocating to take advantage of improved technologies.
- AI’s logic for assigning villagers to gather from resources has been improved.
- AI army will now try to move in formation when traveling to attack or defend a target. Siege engines and slower units will now move together with faster units giving AI a better chance to utilize the whole army.
- Issue with AI archers being idle after fleeing has been fixed.
- AI will now build the first Mining Camp close to its Town Center early in the game.
- AI now uses more villagers to construct landmarks and wonders.
- AI will fall back from battles it is losing more reliably.
- AI player’s monks will now correctly travel with, heal, and buff their allies.
- AI is now more restricted for executing Market trades. It won’t execute trade for resources that it needs when it’s gathering same resource decently. It will only go for Market trades that make sense.
- Accelerated and generally improved AI’s first Town Center placement logic in Nomad mode.
- Fixed AI sometimes repeatedly choosing the same bad spot to build their first Town Center in Nomad mode, destroying it and trying again or sometimes completely failing to choose a good construction spot.
AI Scout Changes
- AI players will now actively Scout for nearby enemy units after they have been harassed in their territory.
- AI scouts now collect sheep in Revealed games.
- AI’s scouts drop sheep off at the base more often.
- Scout:
- pathfinding when grabbing sheep has been improved around shores.
- AI will use their scouts to observe enemy bases more often.
- AI’s scouts no longer deliver sheep to allies on revealed maps.
- AI players’ scouts will no longer attempt to steal sheep from near allied bases.
Campaign
- Tech Trees option has been removed from the pause menu.
Developer’s Note: Removing this view from campaigns is our design solution to confusion experienced by newer players, as the technology and units in the campaigns deviate significantly from the Tech Trees used in Skirmish and Multiplayer matches.
- Fixed a bug in campaign missions where a Villager would not automatically build a structure if placed where the Villager is standing.
- Fixed a problem that could cause the enemy AI to stop attacking during the Lumen Shan mission.
Masteries
- The Clever Commerce French Mastery description has been updated for clarity.
- Fixed a bug where the “Quick Study” achievement was not awarded if the Ottoman or Malian masteries were completed.
Maps
General Map Changes
- Fixed an issue to ensure all Quick Match 2v2 maps use the small version of their maps.
- We have altered the distribution and number of relics that generate on certain sizes of the following maps: Archipelago, Confluence, Mongolian Heights, Nagari, and Warring Islands.
- We’ve tweaked match starts across all maps by adding two Sheep at your Town Center and removing two nearby sheep from spawning a short distance away. This makes for more fair starts and less frantic searching for food in the first seconds of the game.
- Tightened up the generation of impasse along the edges of forests. Trees along the edges of forests should be more easily accessible to villagers.
Map-Specific Changes
MegaRandom
Danube River
Four Lakes
- Fixed an issue where a player’s base could spawn much further from the lake than another player.
- Resources should no longer spawn “cluttered” next to each other around the center of the map when using larger map sizes.
Balance & Bugfixes
General Changes & Bugfixes
- Security fixes implemented to address known exploits.
Civilization-Specific Changes
- Camel Archer:
- frame delay when firing is reduced to match other ranged units.
Ongoing…
Known Issues & Solutions
Our team has redoubled our efforts to Keep players informed about ongoing issues and bugs. To that extent we have recently redesigned our Known Issues & Solutions page to better communicate issues which have a high impact on players and are a high priority for us to resolve.
The Known Issues & Solutions page will update in relative cadence with each Update and Patch for Age of Empires IV. Issue statuses on the page alert if and when we are looking for further examples of a particular bug or issue.
Finally, we have also included full steps on how to report a bug, issue, or crash, and additional work to streamline and improve the process of reporting crashes to Customer Support are in the pipeline for the future.
Queue Dodging
Our last patch contained a series of changes meant to curb the prevalence of queue dodging in Ranked matches. We have since identified additional methods by which some players continue to dodge without severe-enough penalties, Work to close these loopholes is ongoing and will be implemented in the future.
Investigation
Community-Reported Issues:
For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!