Age of Empires IV – Season Eight Update 11.0.782

New! Summer Sights Event

Ranked Season Eight Updates

Time to soak up the sun, Ranked Season Eight is going to be a scorcher! Following the end of Season Seven, Season Eight will kick off close behind and bringing with it a host of rewards for every rank and a little something extra for the highest rank you achieve this season in any ranked mode! Season Eight runs from July 18th at 11:00am PT (18:00 UTC) until October 17th at 10:00am PT (17:00 UTC).

Map Pool Rotation

We have some updated maps hitting the pool with the start of Ranked Season Eight! Dive in and prepare for victory! See you on the ladder!

1v1 Ranked Map Pool 

• Arabia
• Cliffside
• Rocky River
• Himeyama
• Gorge
• Hill and Dale
• Canal
• The Pit
• Baltic

Team Ranked Map Pool

• Arabia 
• Cliffside 
• Rocky River 
• Canal 
• Gorge 
• Migration
• Hideout
• Forts
• Waterholes

New Map: Socotra

We’re unveiling a new map, Socotra! Read on for more details.

Design Rework: Attack Move

We’ve made an adjustment to the default Attack Move behavior, designed to help prevent accidental mis-clicks. On PC, this can be changed back by setting the Attack Move Behavior setting under Game options to “Legacy.” Check out the full details of this rework below.

General

• Fixed an issue where Scouts can skip their reload animations.

AI Updates

• AI will now attempt to fortify contested islands on naval maps.
• Fixed an issue that sometimes caused the game to crash after loading a save game that contains AI players.
• Fixed some issues with the AI focusing too much on Age Up that were introduced as part of the difficulty re-balancing.

Campaign

• Fixed an issue where skipping a campaign cutscene could result in the map being briefly revealed in the next non-campaign match.

Hotkeys

• Using the hotkey combination to queue build multiple units (shift + Q by default) on the Byzantine Mercenary house works again.
• Dervish and Warrior Monks no longer selected with Military shortcuts. Scouts no longer selected with Military shortcuts.
  • Noted exception Malian Warrior Scout.

UX/UI & Menus (All Platforms)

• Population Capacity Reached will only be shown once, even if multiple units are produced at once.
• Added a Free-for-All map pool and allowed for the map vetoes to be specified in that pool.

Localization

• We have made some additional updates to Japanese localization.
• Fixed an untranslated Finnish string for title of the “Du Bois are back in town” achievement.

New Map: Socotra

Socotra

Chaos emerges as different civilizations crowd together on the small island of Socotra, struggling to expand on what little space they could get.

General Map Changes

• Sheep now produce 200 Food instead of 250.
• Two additional sheep spawn under each player’s starting Town Center.

Developer Note: The intention of the changes above is to guarantee a safe amount of sheep for each player and reduce the chance of games swinging as a result of one player getting the majority of the sheep on the map. With this change the overall food on a standard map is kept mostly the same (reduced by only 200 per player)

Map-Specific Changes

Baltic

• Fixed an issue where Pit mines and Ovoos could not be built due to trees spawning nearby.

Cliffside

• Neutral Gold and Stone mines no longer spawn on the cliff side in a way that prevents Ovoo/Pit placement.

Himeyama

• Neutral Gold and Stone mines no longer spawn near cliffs or forests in a way that prevents Ovoo/Pit placement.

Warring Islands

• Fixed a crash that could happen when generating a warring islands team game on a small map size.

General Changes & Bugfixes

• Fixed an issue that caused performance issues when interacting with the Player Profile.
• Fixed a bug where the game would crash if the player clicked on a unit or upgrade in the global queue during a replay and free camera was turned off.
• Fixed a bug where the game would crash if the player pressed Ctrl + H while observing a match and free camera was turned off.
• Fixed an issue where sometimes a Prayer Tent would not give its influence bonuses after researching Monastic Shrines.
• Destroying a stone wall bastion will now destroy neighboring wall segments to guarantee that large units like rams can move through the resulting hole.
• Addressed issues with information leaks in Fog of War related to construction UI.
• Move or attack move commands issued outside the playable area of the map will now be shifted inside the playable area instead of displaying an error.
• Fixed a crash that could occur while loading into a multiplayer game.
• Defenses now properly show the buildings default weapon range on pre and post construction.

Design Rework: Attack Move

We’ve made an adjustment to the default attack-move behavior. Previously, when issuing an attack-move to a unit or building, the attack move was converted into a forced attack command (as if you had right-clicked the target instead). This made is particularly difficult to use attack move around areas with a lot of farms, and would often lead to mis-clicks where you accidentally attack move a unit in a group instead of the ground nearby.

The new default attack-move behavior always treats the attack move as a ground click, so that when you issue an attack move to a unit or building your units will attack-move to their location. On PC, this can be changed back by setting the Attack Move Behavior setting under Game options to “Legacy.”

Game Mode: Dominion

• When a King is garrisoned in a Transport Ship it is no longer possible to delete the ship.

Balance & Gameplay Changes (All Civilizations)

• Docks and House of Wisdom now have both an Economic and a Military rally point. When setting a rally with right click, setting the target to a fishing deposit or a trade settlement will default to setting an Economic rally, while anything else will set a military rally. Fishing Ships and Traders will only travel to the Economic rally when they are created, and all other ships will travel to the Military one. 
• Rally Points can now be queued using the hotkey or command card.
• It is now possible to buy/sell resources at the market in batches of 500 by holding SHIFT while pressing the buy/sell button.
• After defeating a forced attack target, buildings will scan for a new target instead of always falling back to their previous target.
• Siege weapons that are too close to their target to fire on them will now attempt to move away from the target to a position where they are able to fire. They will only do this if they are attacking a target that cannot move, such as a building.
• Horseman range increased from 0.29 to 0.38. Ghazi and Sipahi unaffected.
• Secondary Town Centers have had garrison slots increased from 7 to 8.
• Villagers will now deposit carried resources after completing construction of a Farm.

Naval Updates (All Civilizations)

• Dhows and Canoes now fire arrows from the head of the ship instead of the center.
• Heated Shot
  • Archer Ships now switch to incendiary arrow effects after researching Heated Shot. Visual representation of the upgrade only.
• Fishing Boat line of sight reduced by 25%.
• Fishing boat train time increased from 25 to 30 seconds.
• Abbasid Dynasty and the Ayyubids: Docks now only show the range for the healing aura

                        Abbasid Dynasty

• Corrected a bug where Medical Centers would persist on destroyed Landmark/Capital Town Centers.

                             Byzantines

• Olive Grove cost increased from 60 to 70 wood.
• Dromon move speed increased from 1.38 to 1.5
• Dromon Greek Fire base damage increased from 2 to 4.

Developer Note: This value only applies to fishing ships & demos. Damage versus military ships and buildings unchanged.

• Corrected an issue where Pilgrim Flasks would overlap with Shield Wall on Limitanei when playing on Xbox console with keyboard and mouse.  
• Olive oil is properly deposited when a villager carrying it is garrisoned.

                               Chinese

• Increased the radius of the Imperial Palace spy ability from 1.25 tiles to 3 tiles.
• Increased the duration of the Imperial Palace spy ability from 10 to 15 seconds.
• Corrected an issue where the Battering Ram was missing from Zhuge Nu radial menu.

                           Delhi Sultanate

• Upgrades now count towards the Technology Score, based on the upgrade’s base time cost.
• Fishing Ship damage decreased from 7 to 6.
• Garrisoned scholars in docks production speed modifier decreased from 30% to 20%.
• Hisar Academy can now be selected with research shortcuts.  
• Fishing Boat arrows no longer miss their targets.
• Manuscript Trade is now a default bonus for the Civilization.
• Docks garrison capacity increased from 3 to 4.
• Docks now generate influence as Mosques do.
• Docks will now provide a free scholar in its garrison if it was the first Dock constructed before a Mosque.

                                  English

• King train time increased from 35 to 50 seconds.
• White Tower production speed reduced from 100% to 75%.

                              French

• Town Centers work 10/15/20/25% faster per Age changed to 15/15/20/25%.
• Red Palace Landmark influence increased by +1 tile to match normal Keeps. 
• Artillery Shot has been reworked:
  • Targeted ability that increases the range of the cannon by +5 tiles and damage by +30% for one shot.
  • Can only target buildings.
  • Can target and shoot into fog of war.
  • Reveals the shot location through fog for 3 seconds.
  • 200 seconds cooldown.

                    Holy Roman Empire

• Marching Drills move speed bonus decreased to 5% in the Dark Age and 10% from the Feudal Age onward.  

                              Japanese

• Shinobi blink cast time reduced from 0.85 to 0.4
• Shinobi sabotage cast time reduced from 2 to 1.25.
• Atakebune cost reduced from 170 Food 220 Wood 220 Gold to 100 Food 220 Wood 220 Gold
• Atakebune rocket damage increased from 30 to 40.
• Yumi Ashigaru Feudal health increased from 60 to 65.
• Tatara cost reduced from 75 Gold 25 Stone to 50 Gold 25 Stone.
• Koka Township now benefits from Military Academy.
• Japanese Corrected the selection on some Japanese buildings where the selection bounds extended beyond its footprint.

                           Mongols

• Removed Rally Point command from Mongol Ger since they do not produce units.
• Destroyed Mongol landmarks that haven’t unpacked can now be attacked while under repair.
• Fixed a bug where technology queued at a Prayer Tent would be removed from the queue upon completion of Monastic Shrines.
• Mongol Pasture sheep production time reduced from 140 seconds to 116 seconds.

Developer Note: This is in concert with the changes to Sheep food.

• Mangudai
  • Cost reduced from 120 Food 40 Gold to 90 Food 60 Gold. Double production cost reduced from 160 Stone to 150 Stone.
  • Train time improved from 30 seconds to 28 seconds.
• Secondary Town Center
  • Town Center cost reduced from 900 Wood to 850 Wood.
  • Early Horseman ranged armor increased from 1 to 2.

                               Malians

• Fishing Boats drop off 10% of their Food as Gold.

                              Ottomans

• Military School train time multiplier reduced from 5x to 4.75x.
• The Istanbul Observatory is working as intended when landmark is destroyed and being rebuilt.
• Grand Galleys scale production speed per Age like their influence does.
• Istanbul Imperial Observatory landmark now applies to Grand Galleys.

                                Rus

• Lodya fishing boat train time increased to 46 seconds.

                            Ayyubids

• Corrected an issue where Ayyubid Villagers could not force construct Stone Wall Bastion segments.
• Military Wing- Reinforcement (Feudal Age):
  • It now takes 15 seconds for the first Desert Raider to spawn.
• Economic Wing – Growth (Castle Age): 
  • Reduce number of villagers from 8 to 7.
• Trade Wing – Advisors:
  • Feudal Age Atabegs increased from 2 to 3.
  • Castle Age Atabegs increased from 4 to 5.

                            Jeanne d’Arc

• Artillery Shot has been reworked:
  • Targeted ability that increases the range of the cannon by +5 tiles and damage by +30% for one shot.
  • Can only target buildings.
  • Can target and shoot into fog of war.
  • Reveals the shot location through fog for 3 seconds.
  • 200 seconds cooldown.

                      Zhu Xi's Legacy

• Corrected an issue with Temple of the Sun where the building had 7500 health instead of 5000 health.

Coming Up…

That wraps everything we have in store for you in this update. Be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our follow-up patch, which we’re targeting to release a few weeks after the Red Bull Wololo: El Reinado qualifiers have completed. We have lots more changes coming that we are excited to get into your hands. Here’s a sneak peek at what we have in store for our next patch:

• A full rework of Rus’ bounty system.
• The Deer Stones will grant access to a new unit ‘Khan’s Hunters’.
• The House of Learning will receive some new and compelling technologies.
• A mid-season map pool refresh.
• Many more balance tweaks.

This patch will also see the return of our seasonal event: Map Monsters! You can expect to close out the summer (if you’re in the Northern hemisphere) with the return of some familiar and friendly monsters on land and sea, though we’ll be shaking things up a bit to make it easier to enjoy the fun.

We’re incredibly excited to share Season Eight with you, and we can’t wait to hear what you think. The team is eagerly buttoning up our next patch, but we’re always keeping an eye on your feedback. We’re also turning our attention to what’s next as we plan for our Season Nine release later this year, and even more exciting offerings in Spring 2025.