Hello and welcome to the first week of November! Today's update not only re-syncs Steam with the Microsoft Store so players from both worlds can enjoy each other's company, but comes with a large number of fixes and updates aimed at improving the stability, performance, and playability of the game.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Fixed a severe performance issue when scrolling while running the game in Chinese and other non-English languages.
- Fixed several crashes in the story, multiplayer games, and multiplayer lobbies!
- Updated game settings to better-detect the optimal configuration.
- Fixed the "Cav Box" exploit used to compact units!
- Civilization balance updates for 9 Civs!
- Localization fixes for most languages!
- ...and more!
The team is already hard at work on the next update, which includes more fixes and adjustments based on your feedback. As always: keep visiting the forum to leave your thoughts, contribute or +1 others' threads, and stay involved!
💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Forum 🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord
If you’re having trouble playing the game, remember that we have a dedicated support team to help you troubleshoot the problem! You can also visit the knowledgebase to see if there’s already an answer to your question—especially if you're dealing with stability or performance issues.
More news to come! Stay tuned and let us know what you think of Update 5208 when you've had a chance to play!
—The Age of Empires Team
UPDATE 5208
◆ GAME ◆
Stability & Performance
- Fixed an issue which caused non-English characters (such as Chinese) to slow the game to a crawl when click-dragging to select units.
- Exiting the Clan menu while in a lobby will no longer prevent the multiplayer menu from opening.
- Fixed an infinite loop in the AI code which would cause the Bolivar's Revolt mission to crash.
- Fixed an uncommon crash when selecting a random civ before starting a game.
- Fixed a crash when repairing certain buildings to 100% hp.
- Fixed a rare multiplayer lobby crash caused by players leaving or joining a lobby in certain circumstances.
- Fixed a crash when loading a save game with incorrect unit references.
- Fixed a crash when scrolling through the lobby list.
- Out of an abundance of caution, additional safeguards have been added to the mod manager to ensure player-created mods do not incorrectly alter the expected mod install path and only remove the files included with the mod when unsubscribing / removing them from the game.
Graphics
- Fixed the alignment of the "garrisoned" flags on the Bandit Catamaran, Marathan Catamaran, Ironclad, and Atakebune ships.
- Improved the quality of the Torp Aura visual decal.
- Updated Malta to use the Maltese cross Home City flag rather than the British flag.
- Implemented several changes to the "Headed West" cinematic to prevent it from failing when watched in an extreme widescreen format.
- Implemented several visual improvements to the Act 3 ("Old Coot") cutscene.
- Implemented several visual improvements to the Act 2 ("Trail to Warwick") cutscene after sharing some director tips with the overacting Supply Wagon.
- Corrected the Boneguard flag in the "Lake of the Moon" cutscene to match flags used in the subsequent cutscene, "The Fountain of Youth."
- Fixed Nonakee's broken-looking shoulder animation in the Reunion cutscene.
Audio
- Implemented a fix to prevent certain game sounds from repeating twice.
- Updated the sound effect for the newly-designed ♪ Carolean Charge ♪ and ♪ Sürat Assault ♪.
UI
- Corrected the name of the legacy Crackshot hotkey to Eye of the Assassin.
- Corrected the tooltip of the Agrarian Ways card to read: "Farm and Estate upgrades available before the Imperial Age are now free."
- Added additional options to the Clan context menu, including the ability to "Add Friend."
- Fixed the Definitive and Legacy UI to display health bars in stacked selection.
- Fixed the location of infantry health bars to be consistent when changing stances.
Settings
- Updated the game to more reliably determine the default settings of the game based on hardware specifications.
- Fixed an issue where the Video detection would always set the graphics to "Low," even on more powerful computers.
- The default resolution will now pick the closest minimum resolution instead of trying to scale up. The maximum default resolution of the game has been set to 1080p in order to prevent laptops from overexerting themselves.
- Updated the Super Sampling setting to SSAA, and updated the tooltip description to be more helpful.
- The Accessibility color options now refresh when restoring defaults.
- Fixed five instances of mismatched subtitles and voiceover audio.
◆ GAMEPLAY ◆
- It is no longer possible to exploit the Defend Mode stance in order to create a "Cav box"—where up to 49 heavy cavalry units could be squeezed into a tiny space if grouped with a single ranged cavalry unit. This fixes a prevalent late-game balance issue where buildings could be destroyed too easily, as considerably more units were able to stack and move rapidly into sieging distance.
- Fixed an issue which caused livestock to rally at the Town Center when a Villager was tasked to gather food from them.
- Fixed an issue which could prevent the destruction of a player's armies after they lose.
- SHIFT + clicking the Idle Villager banner will now properly select all idle Villagers.
- Fixed an issue where scroll hotkeys would cease functioning after two to three presses.
◆ CAMPAIGN ◆
- Fixed a bug that prevented several cinematics from progressing.
- Various fixes and tweaks to the Historical Battles.
◆ CIVILIZATION BALANCE ◆
General
- Added an 0.5x Cavalry and Shock Infantry multiplayer to the Li'l Bombard's "Cannon Attack." This should allow the unit to perform similarly to other artillery when upgraded, such as when The Mercenary Contractor (V) politician is selected.
- The Medicine card now properly reduces the cost of Villagers after losing access to them via a Revolution and regaining access with the Citizenship card. Similar cards have been adjusted accordingly.
- Units can no longer clip through any Church structure thanks to corrections to the ObsctructionRadiusX (from 4 ▶ 3.5) and ObstructionRadiusY (from 4 ▶ 5). The Dutch Consulate Church has been adjusted accordingly.
- Aligned the build limit of all Native Mercenaries (NatMercs, or Native Warriors delivered by shipments) to deliver the same number of warriors sent by 'Infinite' native warrior cards. This change aims to address an issue predominantly found in Treaty games, where such shipments could be sent more frequently than intended. The build limits of Native Warriors recruited from Trading Posts are not affected by this change.
- To account for the above change, Native Warrior shipments which can only be sent once now ignore build limits. This ensures that they can always be sent, but also facilitates greater synergy with the ‘Infinite’ Native Warrior cards that grant Champion upgrades.
Corrected the mercenary stats of the Harquebusier to properly mirror the Swedish Hakkapelit:
- Reduced ranged attack damage from 97 ▶ 80.
- Increased rate of fire from 1.5 ▶ 2.0 seconds.
- Added a splash damage radius of 1.
The Dutch
▶︎ CIVILIZATION
- Starting crates adjusted from 100 wood, 500 coin ▶ 100 food, 200 wood, and 400 coin.
The Germans
▶︎ CIVILIZATION
- Following a Revolution, Settler Wagons can now properly be trained from Mills if both the Germantown Farmers and Citizenship cards have been sent.
▶︎ CARDS
- Citizenship: Now renames the Settler Wagon to Citizen Wagon and adjusts its cost to 70 coin and 100 wood.
- Native Lore: No longer delivers 2 bonus Uhlans, as it is no longer an Age 2 card.
The Incas
▶︎ CIVILIZATION
- Artillery units can no longer be garrisoned in the Stronghold. This restriction already applied to the Kallanka.
▶︎ UNITS & BUILDINGS
- Chasquis are no longer able to receive Home City Shipments after advancing to the Commerce Age via The Messenger. The politician description has been adjusted to: “Ages up very fast and Chasquis can receive shipments in the Fortress Age.”
- Plumed Spearman: Reduced siege damage from 44 ▶ 42.
- Bolas Warrior: Increased rate of fire from 3.5 ▶ 3.0 seconds.
- Chincha Raft: Reduced ranged attack damage from 30 ▶ 29.
▶︎ CARDS
- Chimu Support: Improved the wording of the card text.
- Colla Support: Now properly improves all Bolas Warrior melee attack actions.
The Indians
▶︎ CIVILIZATION
- Corrected the display of the Indian flag in the Definitive HUD layout.
- Fixed an issue that caused Indian Home City shipments to deliver a “bonus” villager even after reaching the Villager build limit.
▶︎ UNITS & BUILDINGS
- The Urumi and Mansabdar Urumi now correctly heal while idle, while the Gurkha does not (as described in the ‘Release Day Gameplay Changelog’).
▶︎ UPGRADES
- Crushing Force: Now properly improves the hit chance of the Monk’s passive, “Stomp” ability.
▶︎ CARDS
- 4 Settlers: Available from the Ottoman Consulate, the card can now be sent regardless of Villager build limits, as in the legacy game. This re-enables "over-popping" to 103 Villagers for the purposes of Treaty balance.
- 11 Chakrams: Now properly respects build limits like other Native Warrior shipments, which can be sent infinite times.
- Urumi Swordsmen Regiment: Now properly enables the Mansabdar Urumi to be trained from the Charminar Gate, as described in the ‘Release Day Gameplay Changelog’.
The Japanese
▶︎ CIVILIZATION
- The radius which restricts the placement of the Cherry Orchard near the Town Center has been adjusted to the intended distance.
▶︎ UNITS & BUILDINGS
- Monk: The Divine Strike ability will no longer trigger when fighting War Ships, Leather Cannons, or other artillery units.
The Lakota
▶︎ CIVILIZATION
- Tashunke Prowler: Build limit reduced from 15 ▶ 14.
- Tashunke Prowler: Siege damage reduced from 22 ▶ 18.
- Tashunke Prowler: Reduced the Imperial Age ‘shadow improvement’ from +50% ▶ +25% attack and hp.
▶︎ CARDS
- The Marauders: Reduced the bonus build limit granted to the Tashunke Prowler from +50% ▶ +30%.
The Ottomans
▶︎ UNITS & BUILDINGS
- Nizam Fusilier: Increased siege damage from 20 ▶ 25 so it mirrors the base stats of the Janissary.
The Spanish
▶︎ UPGRADES
- Wild Geese: Now properly sends Harquebusiers instead of Hackapells.
The Swedes
▶︎ CIVILIZATION
- Fixed an issue which prevented Mines created by the Prospector Wagon from being accessible to all players.
- Fixed a bug which prevented Heavy Cannons from using their ordinary long-range Bombard Attack on units and buildings after the Case Shot card was acquired.
▶︎ UNITS & BUILDINGS
- Carolean: Corrected the ranged attack multipliers versus Eagle Runner Knights from 1.3x ▶ 1.5x.
- Horse Artillery: Corrected the “Case Shot” attack damage from 13 ▶ 12.5.
The Carolean Charge mechanic has been reworked!
- Caroleans no longer gain additional speed when switching to their melee stance.
- Added a new Carolean Charge ability with the tooltip: “All Caroleans draw their swords and gain a brief speed boost.”
- This ability grants all Caroleans +1 speed and locks them into melee mode for 8 seconds. The ability has a 90 second global cooldown.
- Reduced the hand attack from 20 ▶ 19.
Nizam Fusiliers have been adjusted accordingly. Their charge ability is named Sürat Assault.
▶︎ CARDS
- Berry Bush: Fixed tooltip text errors.
- Cronstedt Reforms: Now only reduces the population cost of Leather Cannons, Heavy Cannons, and Falconets rather than all artillery.
- Engelsberg Ironworks: Reduced the coin gathering bonus from +150% ▶ +125%.
- Great Northern Forests: Updated the card icon.
- Surströmming: Now has a build limit of 8 for the purpose of Treaty balance.
◆ REVOLUTIONS ◆
Canada
- Updated the icon for the 12 Métis Pathfinders card.
- The 12 Métis Pathfinders and 10 Métis Voyageurs cards now properly respect the Villager and Coureur des Bois build limits, as well as the population cap.
- The Canadian Revolution now properly improves the rifle attacks of Coureur des Bois and Cree Coureur des Bois by +17 damage (up from +13).
- Fixed a bug where the bonuses intended for Grizzly Bears were mistakenly applied to Black Bears. (Zoologists rejoice!)
Chile
- Fixed a bug where the Chilean Revolution would negate the build limit of Mapuche Bolas Riders.
Egypt
Added the following, new cards to the Egyptian Revolution:
- Egyptian Army Reform: The reform of your army allows you to train Nizam Fusiliers from Forts. Instead of a Mameluke, you are now granted 3 additional Nizams Fusiliers.
- Flood of the Nile: Mills spawn a food crate and Estates spawn a coin crate. Villagers collect from Berry Bushes, Mills, and Estates at a faster rate.
- Suez Canal: Trade Route upgrades are free and research instantly. Delivers 3 Trading Post Wagons.
- INF 2 Horse Artillery: Quick moving artillery; strong against infantry.
Haiti
- Updated the voiceover audio of the Privateer and Buccaneers.
- Updated the visual model of the Buccaneer.
◆ MAP BALANCE ◆
- Fixed an error when attempting to load the Hokkaido map.
◆ LOBBIES & MATCHMAKING ◆
- Reversed the default sort order of the multiplayer 'Browse Games' list to display the most recently-created lobbies first.
- Ranked games once again draw from the Standard map pool rather than the Competitive set.
- Added a tooltip when using the lobby browser which, when hovering over a player, provides visibility into their Elo standings.
- Fixed an issue which prevented Elo gain or loss in ranked multiplayer games.
- A player’s profile ID will no longer be displayed when joining and leaving chat rooms.
- Added messaging when attempting to invite other MS Store users to a game lobby.
- Added an Invite button to the casual game multiplayer lobby.
- Civilization flags will now be displayed when loading into a ranked match.
- Fixed the display when Random Personality is selected in the Ranked lobby. Both the flag and civilization level will now be shown as “?”.
- Fixed an issue which prevented the Options button from working while in a multiplayer menu.
- Fixed an issue where joining a different lobby while already in a lobby would break the UI for that player.
◆ AI ◆
- Improved how AI players utilize and employ Revolution features.
- AI are no longer allowed to both Revolt and advance to the Imperial Age.
- Fixed a rare issue where Settlers could get stuck in training.
- Improved various situations where the AI would not be as aggressive as it should.
- Fixed an issue which prevented computer players from sending certain Home City shipments.
◆ LOCALIZATION ◆
- Fixed several localization errors in the multiplayer chat rooms.
- Updated numerous translations in the following languages: French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malaysian, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Spanish, Turkish, Vietnamese
◆ MODDING ◆
- Updated the miniz zipping library to assume utf8 encoded file paths on Windows rather than ANSI.
- Removed filter options from selecting a mod thumbnail file dialog as part of uploading a mod.
- Fixed a back-end authentication bug that could stop mods from working.
- Fixed a “zip error” when attempting to publish a mod.
ONGOING INVESTIGATION
As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates. Here is a brief update from our Production team regarding some of what is still in the works:
- Aztec War Chief: The balance team is looking to improve the Aztec War Chief’s “Cuachic Ascension” ability in a future update!
- Crash Fixes: We are continuing to deep-dive into crash reports and late-game problems in multiplayer games in an effort to improve the stability of the client. For players experiencing stability or performance issues, please contact support so they can work with you to troubleshoot, collect information, and diagnose the issue.
- Units getting stuck in structures: This is a prominent issue with several different fixes in the works. We’ve heard you and will be implementing updates as soon as we’re confident in them!
- MS Store user names showing up as Numbers: Another issue on the forefront!
:alertalert: DISCLAIMER
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.
Please note that custom mods may not be compatible with the latest game update. If you are experiencing issues launching or playing the game after downloading the new build, try disabling your installed mods before trying again. Still having trouble? Visit our support page!