Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition – Update 59165

Venetian Ball Event

February 22- March 8

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition is throwing a ball – Venetian style!

With the start of carnival season, we are excited to bring you a new set of challenges! So, dust off your fanciest and ball-worthy attire and put on your Venetian masks. You won’t want to miss out on some fun challenges and your chance to unlock some fancy rewards during the event.

New Rewards!

Starting TODAY through March 8th, complete the in-game tasks within the time limit to unlock exclusive rewards!

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

Keep it Forever!

Remember: if you sign in to Xbox Live at any point during the event, you get to keep all the mods and profile icons you unlock! Sign in, earn your rewards, and enjoy!

—The Age of Empires Team

Event F.A.Q.

Stability & Performance

• Various improvements to the game’s performance in Multiplayer matches.
• Fixed a crash that could occur during gameplay on old versions of Windows 10.

UI

• Added a new setting in the Options menu to limit the framerate during gameplay. This setting is only active when the V-Sync setting is disabled and the framerate can be uncapped entirely.
• The Technology Tree can now be properly navigated again when any “go to building”/”select all buildings” hotkeys are unassigned.
• Fixed an issue where the Co-Op Campaign Introduction slideshow was able to overlap with the Lobby Browser UI under certain circumstances.

Settings

• Added a new setting in the options interface menu to enable/disable the Smooth Serif Font added in the January Update.

Fixes

• • Unit spawn locations directly around the buildings which train them can no longer be blocked by enemy wall foundations on which construction has not yet begun.

General

• Traditional Chinese: Smooth Serif Font is now properly translated in the options interface menu.

Performance Issues

We’re aware that recent changes have introduced performance issues for some players. This is the second update in the last few weeks in which we’ve included additional fixes to help resolve these issues, including now an FPS slider when V-Sync is disabled, to give you more control over game performance. Please provide feedback related to game performance issues and we’ll continue to keep an eye on this as we work toward future updates.

Queue Dodging, Cooldowns, and Cheating

Issues related to these concerns remain a priority for us and we hope to be introducing some changes related to cheating in an Update coming soon. Until then please know that we’re monitoring your feedback and taking that into account as we determine what’s coming next.

Problems with MP Services

• We’re constantly monitoring and ready to troubleshoot issues you may have connecting to Multiplayer services, or finding, joining, and/or hosting matches. When these kind of problems occur, the most useful information for us is network logging provided by you. If you experience these issues at any point, please follow the steps below to notify our Support Team and provide this information:

• You can find these Logs by looking in this folder: C:\Users\ [[YOUR WINDOWS USERNAME]] \Games\Age of Empires 2 DE\logs
• Network Logs look like this, and contain the date and time of the session you most recently started (example): 2021.08.20-12.03.37.txt
• Our Support Team may ask you to try again using our Enhanced Logging build, which provides additional logging information
• NOTE: The Enhanced Logging build generates very large log files – once you’ve submitted a relevant Support Request, you’ll want to switch back to the regular build, and once you’ve sent any relevant log files you can delete them to save HDD space

To use the Enhanced Logging build:

1. In some circumstances, we need additional logging information to better understand your problem, and that’s when we ask that you use the Enhanced Logging build
2. To do that, locate Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition in your Steam Games Library
3. Right-click the game title and select Properties at the bottom of the menu
4. In the window that appears, select the BETAS tab on the left
5. In the available field, enter this beta access code: 4YH2SkfG7CK5yanvrXE9qj8b
6. You’ll then see that you’ve been given access to enhanced_logging and a button will appear asking you if you’d like to opt in
7. Opt in or select the enhanced_logging beta, and Steam will automatically update your build 

Crashes and Freezes

As a reminder, player-reported issues (when they’re informational only) can be difficult for us to diagnose, and log files alongside a little bit of back and forth with our Support Team remain incredibly helpful. This shift toward working directly with our players to dig into the issues you’re reporting has allowed us to improve stability more quickly, and we’re anxious to keep this up. Here’s information that will help you work with our Teams when filing Support Requests –

1. If your game is crashing, there’s a specific log file that’ll help us understand why and it looks like this (example): AoE2DESteam-46906-2021.04.06-15.46.57.mdmp.
2. The file can be found in this directory: C:\Users\[YOUR WINDOWS USERNAME]\Games\Age of Empires 2 DE\logs.
3. The log file name specifies the game, platform you’re playing on, build version, and the date/time of the crash, and is specific to every instance – so if your game crashed earlier in the day and you’ve been playing since, you can still go back and find this file by matching it to when your issue occurred.
4. Please attach this file in any Support Requests you submit regarding a crash, and if necessary we’ll reach back out for more information.
5. You can reach out to our reach out to our Support Team, and if you’re a Steam user, you may be directed to PUP to help us confirm if we’ve been able to resolve your issue.

Coming Up...

Updates, Updates, Updates!

It’s only February and already we’re releasing another update to Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, with plenty more planned throughout the year and some fun surprises waiting for you along the way! Last December, we did something a little different with our event and celebrated the holidays with some summer flare – the common experience for those living in the Southern Hemisphere where BBQs in December are more common than snow and hot cocoa. The reaction was awesome and we’d love to hear from you about event themes that might capture your imagination and show others something they don’t know about cultures around the world. How can we better tell your story? Feedback is welcome and we’re excited to hear what you think deserves to be part of our events going into the future!

DISCLAIMER

Please note that this list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of 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.