Editor’s Note: Patch is now live!
In Patch 14681, we’re excited to share some changes we’ve made based on your feedback. To start, we know you’ve been asking for Team Game Map Size changes, and this patch introduces the option to choose smaller or larger maps in multiplayer – whatever your preference! We’ve also put some focus towards tuning specific maps to be better for all types of multiplayer and skirmish modes. While there’s still more we’d like to do for maps that we weren’t able to get to in this patch, we’d especially like to thank you for continuing to share your thoughts. Your map feedback has been incredibly helpful to us!
For balance, we know you’ve been wanting your units to be able to attack stone walls under construction… and now you can! We’re also making a few adjustments for Chinese Extra Materials, and while balance changes for Mangonels aren’t quite ready for Patch 14681, we’ll be looking at focusing their role so they aren’t as powerful in all situations and have a more defined place in the unit counter system in a future patch.
A few fixes are coming for the Royal Rumble Mod, and as always, we’re rounding out the rest of this patch by adding a few balance changes and general bug fixes. Read on to learn more!
NOTE: Upon updating to this patch, you will no longer be able to utilize replays and saves from previous updates. While we do our best effort to minimize impact on saves, Campaign and Skirmish saves from the previous patch are impacted and will no longer be accessible after you update. Campaign progress will NOT be lost with this patch update.
Maps
Team Game Map Sizes
Team game map sizes have been reduced across the board.
- We now support playing 4v4 on the Large map size, and 3v3 on the Medium map size – these options are now supported for custom games
- In Quick Match, 2v2 games will now be played on Small (down from Medium), 3v3 games on Medium (down from Large), and 4v4 on Large (down from Gigantic)
- Gigantic maps are still available for custom games. Please continue to give us feedback on how map sizes feel in team games!
- Updated how the spawns on Warring Islands work in the case of uneven teams (where the difference between the largest and smallest team is greater than 2 (e.g. in a 4v2v1v1). In cases like this, each player will now get their own island in order to ensure that the larger team doesn’t have a distinct resource and build space advantage. Teammates’ islands should be in close proximity though, so controlling the seas with your teammates is still important!
Specific Maps
Altai
- The amount of trees on Altai has been increased. In addition to starting dense forests, numerous small dense forests have been added
Dev note: We saw that games pushing into Imperial Age on Altai could often result in the entire map being harvested of wood, so we’ve added numerous small dense woods around the map to help alleviate the wood starvation late-game. The forests we added were small forests to make sure they did not choke up the openings on the map, as we want Altai to remain a relatively open map.
Mountain Pass
- Trade Posts on Mountain Pass have been moved to spawn halfway between the corner of the map and wherever the mountain range hits the map edge. This should help ease cases of trade being too vulnerable as soon as one team loses the central pass
French Pass
- To open up the map a bit more on French Pass, we’ve shortened the mountain ranges
Dev note: French Pass was playing as a quite turtle-y map, with the mountains reaching far enough towards the map edge that walling off entire sides of the map was quite cheap to do. We’ve cut the mountain ranges a bit shorter on both sides to open up the sides of the map for more dynamic engagements and army maneuvering.
Boulder Bay
- Boulder Bay has had tuning done to player spawning to ensure that the maps loaded correctly, and placed players and their team in the correct areas
The Danube River
The Danube River map has had a few tweaks to make trade more viable and open up more play options for the hill side of the map.
- Both trade posts will now spawn in opposing corners of the hill
Dev note: this should allow for both teams to have equal access to trade independent of water control.
- Sacred Sites have been moved slightly – one is now near the edge of the map on the island, where the old island trade post spawned, and one is in the center of the hill, with a new path leading down to the bridge
Dev note: we wanted to open up play on the hill more than was happening before. The added path, along with shorter cliffs overall, should make this a more interesting area to control and contest.
- Two boar have been added to the center of the island to maintain its’ economic importance
Mods
- Added more error message popups to handle possible server-related UGC errors
- You will also now receive error messaging around mod upload rejections due to inappropriate content
- Addressed potential memory leak when browsing through / opening mods
- When hosting a match, you can select between local/published variant of a tuning pack or game mode mod. Previously selecting the published variant would instantly change the selection to the local variant
Royal Rumble Mod
- Fixed an issue where the Abbasid could use Faith ability to single target convert an enemy King and would break Royal Rumble Mod
- Fixed an issue where players could Delete their kings in the Royal Rumble Mod
Editor
- Fixed a Fatal Scar Error caused by a missing parameter in the Royal Rumble template
Balance
- Stone walls under construction can now be attacked by all units
- Chinese Extra Materials no longer stacks on single wall segments
- Chinese Extra Materials now repairs all wall segments within range. Chinese Extra Materials repair range reduced from 12.5 tiles to 4 tiles
- Added an aura UI which shows the ability range of Chinese Towers and Outposts after researching Extra Materials
AI
- Fixed a bug that could cause the Mongol AI to send its army to defend its Ovoo when it was not under threat
- AI will use Khan as scout at the start of the game to find stone deposits faster and place its Ovoo on it
- AI will use Khan as scout at the start of the game to find stone deposits faster and place its Ovoo on it
General Fixes
- Hotkeys bound to Ctrl, Alt or Shift only are now working properly after re-launching the game
- Fixed a bug that allowed a player to track selected enemy units into the Fog of War
- Fixed a bug where villagers could become stuck gathering from sheep if they had previously been gathering from deer or boar
- Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause units to become unresponsive to attack commands against a specific enemy
- Fixed a bug where Nest of Bees reload time could be avoided by cancelling in the middle of an attack
- Fixed bug where Annihilation Victory could not be achieved if a player had unconstructed Siege units stamped by infantry on the map
- Fixed an issue where the Elzbach Place’s description did not communicate its Influence bonus in the French translation
- Fixed an issue where the Delhi Sultanate “Military Construction” Mastery could not be completed despite fulfilling the requirements.
What’s Next
We’ve got some new challenges and rewards coming your way soon, so keep an eye out for more information about Season One Event Two: Sounds of Reverie! We’ve also got a survey upcoming you’ll want to participate in soon. We’re always looking for your comments and feedback, and especially since we’ve launched the ranked season, we’re very interested in hearing from you! As we actively work on features we discussed for Season Two, don’t forget that you can look forward to “What’s Next” on our Community Roadmap.