Yes! Steam users now having the same censorship.
Excellent work Microsoft.
We aren’t even saying anything shady or vulgar in the slightest, and yet things are almost all stars for us. The in-game taunts look like **, and the computer player names, instead of saying King Relobo of Tarsh, say **** ****** ** ***** instead… what’s going on? Please fix this! It’s making communication unviable.
Want to preface that I Love AoE2:DE. I think the teams that are working on it are doing a great job fixing issues / balancing the game. One thing for chat though. Can we add the civ names to a whitelist? Currently if you try to type a message with “Cumans” in it, it gets censored. Probably due to the first few letters…
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Hey just want to report a false positive here…
my nickname technikalex, is getting censored ingame and in the lobby. its really annoying tbh and wasnt the case before the patch. 36906. also sometimes in rare cases my nickname is shown again normally. 1/20 chance.
would be nice to play again as technikalex and not as *********
Tbh i dont get the chat filter at all we are all adults and if ppl want to bypass the chat filter they will be able to do it so why investing so much work in that?
All dev resources should shift to removing the filter or fixing it/providing options (parental lock toggle), and removing it for private matches with friends. I don’t really want or need anymore game updates until this one is addressed, personally; and that’s coming from someone who doesn’t even chat much
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With every update the in-game chat filter becomes more and more draconian, and it has now reached the point where it’s becoming impossible to communicate with teammates.
I have just lost a game in part because I tried 5 times to send a simple message and it was censored every time, no matter how I tried to word it. The enemy was cutting through the middle in hideout, pings were not enough as I lost the LOS over their onagers when my units died, so tried to warn them via chat only for it to be censored every time until they’d already cut through. There was no way to warn my allies to wall, move eco or send units until it was too late.
It is now so difficult to communicate in-game that I think it’s reached the point where the chat should just be removed altogether - it doesn’t currently fulfill any purpose. It’s simply not working as a communication tool, and there’s no other purpose to it, so it should be scrapped.
Not only will this completely remove the risk from offensive chat being spoken in game, freeing up dev time to stop working on the filter, forcing users to find their own external programs communicate with will actually benefit the community. We’ll be able to speak more freely, knowing that we can be understood, and without the frustration of having to repeat ourselves multiple times.
It’s clear that the filter isn’t going anywhere, and that the direction of travel is that it’ll be more restrictive, not less. The censor is only going to continue to get worse, so the only way to guarantee that your message will actually be received and understood is to use a different program.
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If you play with friends: You can use another tool.
If you play with randoms: You cant use another tool.
Best option is just to delete the in-game chat filter. I still dont know why they havent changed this…
The thing is, it’s so difficult to communicate in-game that it’s now reached the point that the chat serves no purpose any more.
It’s currently almost impossible to chat with randoms in-game anyway, and it’s clear that this is just going to continue getting worse, so why not just remove it.
Of course I agree that we should remove the filter or make it optional - but that’s clearly not an option. Taking such drastic action as to remove the in-game chat altogether would at least send a message to whoever it is that is demanding this filter exists. Hopefully it’ll force a response and lead to some positive change.
Well, if you play Custom Scenarios, you already have your wish https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/bug-chat-does-not-appear-in-mp-custom-scenarios/81409
Omg that’s hilarious.
Christ this game is so broken.
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New feature in testing?
Biggest idiocy in RTS gaming history.
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It’s because you’ve included сука
Guys just a reminder, the developers are not to blame for the implementation of the filter. The developers had no decision in it, it was all decided on by Xbox Live (Microsoft). This is why it is not in patch notes, because it was not included by the devs (And yes, there are 2 separate filters. If you are logged in on Xbox Live you will be using the Xbox Live filter, but if not the chat will be filtered via the Steam filter. This is why people have had different words being filtered ie. ‘onager’ was not filtered for me on the Xbox Live filter but it was on Steam). In fact I’m told it’s made the devs’ job more difficult because they cannot do anything about the filter, because it’s above their league, so all these hate posts should be on the Xbox/Microsoft forums 
P.S. my info is from multiple chats with devs from different studios.
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If they have no control over it how did they make the recent improvements (e.g. 11 is no longer censored)? More importantly, why haven’t they explained the situation publicly?
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They probably have no control over the game having it.
They are likely forced by someone / some organization to implement that
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Can’t they make “onager”, “cumans” and “douche” uncensored then?
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No, that is not the point.
The whole thing about the existence of a profanity filter is likely a forced task to the devs by someone.
Microsoft can no doubt fix it on their side. The filter is not even included in the game files, because it’s server based elsewhere. If there was no confirmation of fixing the ‘11’ issue in patch notes because the developers did not fix it.
The devs don’t have a hand in the making of the filter, it’s handled by Microsoft (Xbox Live whatever), only Microsoft can actually do anything about it’s problems, it’s not a game issue (ie. It was implemented into the server system (I’m told the ingame servers are hosted by Relic Link) not the actual game files, so devs can’t do a thing about it).
So, the devs are not actually being ‘forced’ to do anything; the filter was added to the servers, by the ‘higher ups’. Because of this, the developers had no opinion in the matter, as technically it is not their problem how the filter works - or does not work.
To others who are about to post a hate speech towards the devs - don’t. They didn’t implement the filter. They can’t remove or fix the filter. It is not their responsibility; so rather complaining against the game’s developers, go complain to the people responsible, which are the game’s publishers (as the filter covers both Xbox Live and non Xbox Live (Steam) online games).
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