Age of Empires 4’s first major patch of 2022 brings bug fixes and balance changes
The first update to Age of Empires 4 in 2022 — Patch 10257 — is expected today, with balance and bug fixes galore.
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What you need to know
Age of Empires 4launched October 28, 2021 and received an overall warm reception. There have been countless hours played since launch, both online and offline, and a number of bugs and balance issues have turned up. And now, we have the first patch of 2022 — Patch 10257 — being deployed today to fix a number of major issues that players have been dealing with for the past few weeks.
A developer stream was hosted January 18, detailing the changes coming in today’s patch.
This patch is significant, andit will cause your older replays and skirmish saves to stop working. Campaign saves should be unaffected by the patch. There are a number of general changes that will take hold no matter the civilization you’re playing, as well as more focused changes for individual civilizations.
For the general changes, the player pool matchmaking system has been expanded by 67%, meaning you should find ranked games faster thanks to there being more players to choose from. All Scouts in the game now move 35% slower when they’re carrying an animal carcass, giving them a bit of a nerf that’s important in the earlier ages. And all Horsemen rank II to IV have had their ranged armor buffed from 1 to 2. This should make it easier for a tech switch when going up against archers.
There are a number of other changes specific to certain civilizations that I’ve copied below. You can see thefull list of patch notes at the official Age of Empires site.
HRE
Rus
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Developer Note: In congruence with the scout speed reduction, we are making this change to allow more counterplay options against Warrior Monks quickly grabbing up relics on the map.
Mongols
Developer Note: The Mongol civilization gets off to a fast start by not needing houses and enhanced stone income from the Ovoo. This change is targeted at slowing down the opening and giving enemies more time to muster a defense.
Developer Note: We found the Outpost rushing strategy to be too low of an investment for Mongols for how powerful and difficult it is to counter. Mongol outposts are still special as they provide the Yam network movement speed bonus.
Developer note: We have removed the requirement from all Mongol buildings that they must have an empty queue in order to pack up. We feel that this will improve the player experience when attempting to pack and move multiple buildings quickly or at the same time.
Delhi Sultanate
Developer Note: This now correctly matches with the other research times of average cost technologies in Imperial Age. Technology research times for the Delhi Sultanate are based on their power level and the age that the technology is available in.
Developer Note: This now correctly matches with other research times of highly expensive technologies in Imperial age.
Chinese
Developer Note: We envision this unit as a hit and run raider that’s effective vs buildings, siege and villagers. In addition to this, the current AoE damage is so powerful it can quickly nuke and kill most units! We’ve targeted these changes at making the Fire Lancer overall less cost effective at fighting enemy troops.
That’s about it for this patch, but the team is apparently already working on another February patch which will cover some of the other outstanding issues players have been experiencing. The notes mention demolition ships, siege, the Abbasid Dynasty, and elephants and mounted cavalry.
If you’d like to start enjoying this RTS gem, one of thebest gaming laptopscan help you get things off the ground. Age of Empires 4 can be purchased separately from Microsoft or Steam, but it’s also included inPC Game Pass.
Age of Empires 4 hasn’t reinvented the RTS genre, but it has perfected many aspects. The campaign is absorbing, the multiplayer is competitive, and the visuals and audio are a near-perfect fit. If you’re a fan of the Age of Empires series, this is an easy recommendation.
Cale Hunt brings to Windows Central more than eight years of experience writing about laptops, PCs, accessories, games, and beyond. If it runs Windows or in some way complements the hardware, there’s a good chance he knows about it, has written about it, or is already busy testing it.
