May PUP Notes: KotM Info

Age of Empires III: DE III - Discussion
1

Come one, come all, check out these deets!

:scroll: [BUILD INFO] - Public Update Preview - May Update :: Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition :hammer_and_wrench: Public Update Preview (steamcommunity.com)

Game

Stability & Performance

  • Fixed a rare crash when a player would open a menu after losing their internet connection and reconnecting.

  • Fixed a rare crash where players could crash when adjusting their graphic settings during certain Story Mode missions.

  • Fixed a crash that could occur during large multiplayer games after a player temporarily lost connection, then reconnected.

Graphics

  • Fishing Boat: The European and Native American Fishing Boats are now operated by a crew of Villagers (visual update).

  • Trade Ships: Fixed an issue where a trade ship on naval trade routes would not use its proper visuals.

UI

  • Fixed Event Challenge Tracker overlapping with the home city info card.

Achievements

  • "See My Vest” Achievement can now be completed correctly by all civilizations.

Gameplay

Fixes

  • Multiple Communication Pings can now be sent after making a selection.

    • Ctrl + Right-click to open the Communication Wheel.

    • Make a selection with Left-click.

    • Hold Alt + Left-click to send the same flare type multiple times.

    • Releasing Alt will reset the flare to the default (Danger).

  • Spectators can no longer open the Ping/Flare Communication Wheel.

  • Fix for text notifications not sending to allies when using Communication Pings.

Civilization Balance

GENERAL

UNITS & BUILDINGS

  • Sudanese Dervish: Ranged resistance reduced to 0.2 (from 0.3); now inflicts 0.75x to Skirmisher-type units (down from 1x)

  • Red Sea Wagon: Fixed an issue where Red Sea Wagon could construct Haciendas for non-Mexican civilisations under certain circumstances

TECHNOLOGIES

  • Imperial Age: All Units now train +10% faster upon reaching the Imperial Age (previously a feature of the Immigrants technology).

  • Mediterranean Mercenary Army: Now grants 1 Li’l Bombard, 3 Elmetti and 4 Zouaves (previously shipped 3 Mamelukes, 6 Barbary Corsairs and 4 Stradiots).

  • Warrior (Community Plaza): Hitpoint decay rate doubled whilst nearby an enemy Town Center.

To celebrate the release of Knights of the Mediterranean the following European TEAM cards have received new names and icons for royal flavor:

  • British TEAM Fast-building Houses â–ș TEAM House of Tudor

  • Dutch TEAM Cheap Market Improvements â–ș TEAM House of Nassau

  • French TEAM Early Skirmishers â–ș TEAM House of Bonaparte

  • German TEAM Teutonic Town Center â–ș TEAM House of Hohenzollern

  • Ottoman TEAM Cheap Trading Posts â–ș TEAM House of Osman

  • Portuguese House of Bragança â–ș TEAM House of Bragança (now a team card!)

  • Russian TEAM Barracks Hitpoints â–ș TEAM House of Romanov

  • Swedish TEAM Heavy Infantry Hitpoints â–ș TEAM House of Bernadotte

Further historical references have been applied to the following cards:

  • TEAM 1 Monitor â–ș TEAM Gunboat Diplomacy

  • Aztec TEAM 3 Villagers â–ș TEAM Calpulli

  • Aztec TEAM Cheap Fishing Boats â–ș TEAM Texcoco Fishing Boats

  • Chinese TEAM 1 Fuchuan â–ș TEAM Expeditionary Fuchuan

  • Chinese TEAM 2 Mongol Scouts â–ș TEAM Ming Mongols

  • Chinese TEAM 3 Fire Junks â–ș TEAM Burning Sea

  • Chinese TEAM 4 Hand Mortars â–ș TEAM Wankouchong

  • Chinese TEAM 5 Manchu â–ș TEAM Imperial Manchu Vanguard

  • Dutch TEAM 3 Envoys (Dutch) â–ș TEAM Orangists

  • Dutch/Swedish TEAM Recruit Privateers â–ș TEAM Carribean Privateers

  • French TEAM Cheap Church â–ș TEAM Louvre

  • French TEAM Improved Native Warriors â–ș TEAM French Auxiliaries Combat

  • German TEAM Cheap Stables â–ș TEAM Reichsritter

  • German TEAM Hire Hessians â–ș TEAM Soldier Trade

  • Inca TEAM 2 Fattened Llamas â–ș TEAM Festive Llamas

  • Inca TEAM 2 Priestesses â–ș TEAM Aqllakuna

  • Indian TEAM 4 Urumi â–ș TEAM Kalari

  • Japanese TEAM 1 Castle Rickshaw â–ș TEAM Ashikaga Castle

  • Japanese TEAM 2 Castle Rickshaws â–ș TEAM Azuchi Momoyama Castles

  • Japanese TEAM 3 Fishing Boats â–ș TEAM Sushi

  • Japanese TEAM Cheap Unit Upgrades â–ș TEAM Sengoku

  • Ottoman TEAM 4 Spahis â–ș TEAM Rumeliots

  • Portuguese TEAM Early Dragoons â–ș TEAM Order of Aviz

  • Russian TEAM 8 Spies â–ș TEAM Time of Troubles

  • Russian TEAM Cavalry Scouts â–ș TEAM Kamchatka Expeditions

  • Russian TEAM Cheap Priests â–ș TEAM Patriarchy

  • Spanish TEAM Archaic Soldier Training â–ș TEAM Hidalgos

  • Spanish TEAM Cheap Barracks â–ș TEAM Spanish Road

  • Spanish TEAM Explorer Combat â–ș TEAM Destreza

  • Swedish TEAM 1 Torp â–ș TEAM New Sweden

AZTEC

TECHNOLOGIES & CARDS

  • TEAM Texcoco Fishing Boats: Now also properly affects African Fishing Canoes.

BRITISH

TECHNOLOGIES & CARDS

  • Terraced Houses: The card previously known as Estates has been renamed to avoid confusion with the Estate building. The card icon has also been updated

ETHIOPIANS

TECHNOLOGIES & CARDS

  • Prize Bull (II): Big Benny is now worth 700 food, but can fatten to 900.

INCA

UNITS AND BUILDINGS:

  • Stronghold & Kallanka: Units attempting to garrison must now wait 3 seconds before being able to do so.

OTTOMANS

TECHNOLOGIES & CARDS:

  • Ottoman Mercenary Army: The card previously called Mediterranean Mercenary Army shipping 3 Mamelukes, 6 Barbary Corsairs and 4 Stradiots is now exclusive to the Ottomans as Ottoman Mercenary Army.

PORTUGUESE

TECHNOLOGIES & CARDS:

  • House of Bragança: This is now a team card called TEAM House of Bragança. The card icon has also been updated.

SPANISH

UNITS AND BUILDINGS:

  • Lancer: Train time corrected to 40 seconds (fixed a bug where they took 66 seconds).

CARDS:

  • **Spanish Gold (III):**Fixed an issue where some cards did not deliver the correct amount of Coin. The card icon has also been updated.

UNITED STATES

UNITS:

  • Steamer: Can now train Gatling Guns instead of Hussars.

MEXICO

REVOLUTIONS:

  • Mayans: Added Food Silos, Native Warriors and Sustainable Agriculture to Mayan Deck.

Random Maps

Map Set Updates:

  • Standard Maps Set:

    • Added Anatolia

    • Added Balkans

    • Added Bohemia

    • Added Courland

    • Added Dnieper Basin

    • Added Finland

    • Added France

    • Added Hungarian Plains

    • Added Pripet Marshes

    • Added Pyrenees

    • Added Saxony

    • Added Scandinavia

    • Added Vistula Basin

    • Added Wallachia

    • Removed Bahia

    • Removed Gold Coast

    • Removed Gran Chaco

    • Removed Highlands

    • Removed Ivory Coast

    • Removed Lake Victoria

    • Removed Niger Delta

    • Removed Siberia

    • Removed Tripolitania

  • Team Maps Set:

    • Added Anatolia

    • Added Balkans

    • Added Bohemia

    • Added Courland

    • Added Danish Strait

    • Added Dnieper Basin

    • Added England

    • Added Finland

    • Added France

    • Added Hungarian Plains

    • Added Ireland

    • Added Low Countries

    • Added Pyrenees

    • Added Saxony

    • Added Scandinavia

    • Added Scotland

    • Added Spain

    • Added Vistula Basin

    • Added Wallachia

    • Removed Bahia

    • Removed Borneo

    • Removed Gold Coast

    • Removed Ivory Coast

    • Removed Lake Victoria

    • Removed Ozarks

    • Removed Painted Desert

    • Removed Punjab

    • Removed Rockies

  • Treaty Maps Set:

    • Added Alps

    • Added Balkans

Map Changes

  • Atlas:

    • Hunts are now permitted to spawn slightly closer to starting towns in the Treaty game mode.

  • Darfur:

    • Fixed an issue where sometimes a players starting berry bushes failed to spawn.

  • Hokkaido:

    • Fixed an issue where sometimes a players starting mine would not spawn.

  • Ozarks:

    • Adjusted the placement of the native settlements for Treaty spawns to ensure both teams have equal opportunity to ally with the local natives during the treaty period.

  • Unknown:

    • Added some new starting wagons, scouts, and techs - all randomly selected and of course
 yours to discover!.

  • Swahili Coast:

    • Fixed an issue preventing the trade ship from spawning along the trade routes.
12 Likes
2

This is all nice.

The most hated feature in DE has been fixed


Now the next step, and a must: give the Europeans European ally shipments. I won’t bother repeating it until it comes true.

9 Likes
3

Can you use the new civs in the PUP, like in skirmish?

1 Like
4

Renaming Hokkaido to Ezochi would be more suitable for historical references.
Until 1869, there was called Ezochi, literally “Land of the Ainu”.
Even if the introduction of Ainu minor civ is unlikely in the near future, at least the map renaming is still feasible.

5

Looks like mostly good changes. A couple of questionable ones though.

I don’t like this one. It makes Immigrants kind of a useless tech.

This one seems less historical. The old card referred to this:

1 Like
6

no they removed the red sea wagon-hacienda interaction, how will I spam soldados out of 7 haciendas now

1 Like
7

Wow, renaming the European cards to their respective royal houses is incredible


1 Like
8

Of course, that would have been interesting, but usually people know it as hokkaido and already


9

Of course we want our very European civs


10

I really want them to intergrate the royal house units with the European civs. Its going to be so weird that Britain will have no better access to the English drummer than the Haudosaunee. Or the French and the Royal units.

We have all these unique European units in the game now but when it comes to the European civs unless they are fighting on specific maps they will still be largely using generic armies with the same units.

8 Likes
11

Soildier Trade is still historical just take a closer look.

2 Likes
12

One thing I find odd is that nearly all new civs end up getting better legacy units than the own legacy civs. I mean USA can get a bunch of Industrial Age Uhlans in Age3 AND also train them, in a much easier way. What the heck! That makes no sense!

It worked very well when they had been acquired through merc cards only or embassy, but nowadays we are getting overcrowded with borrowed euro units.
I feel we should take a break about it after this DLC.

2 Likes
13

Well I think there should be some sort of standard when it comes to foreign auxilaries in the game.

USA and Mexico can train foreign units from forts after they ship them the first time, and Malta from the commandery.

Aztec, Mayan and Hauds get ‘renegade’ european units that don’t shadow tech and they can’t train more of them.

Asian civs get units from consulates but export is slow and unreliable and you only get units in fixed batches. Which make protecting your one falconet a high priority because they’re very expensive to replace since you also have to pay for other units you don’t need with a resource you can’t invest in.

African have influence which they spend on foreign units (like fakconets) in addition to mercenaries and natives. But it’s more of a real resource than export.

14

And I do not really buy the common claim that “xxx (a legacy civ) is fine without xxx”.
Most new civs are overstuffed with a lot of overlapping unit roles they do not really need. That’s more for fun and historical reference than balancing (like when I look at the design of Italy, I do not see it really needs that Bourbon ally card to be functional. Same for US uhlan or Mexican musketeers). The game is not just about competitive 1v1 where you end up using that 1 or 2 most effective build orders for each civ (in which case most civs would be fine without most options).

I really would like to know what is the reason that makes them so hesitant and conservative updating old civs generally, while the new civs get ridiculously amount of options. The most representative would be that “1 infinite battleship” card. I see no problem just giving it to every European civ. I do not think any civ would be straight up broken just because of it. But no. They have to wait for the rework of each civ to add it. But Italy and Malta already got it.
I would say the same for native allies and mercs. Since TAD old civs have not received any of the new allies or mercs. Just copy paste some European ally cards for Italy and Malta. Maybe it would open up new viable build orders. And that’s great.

15

Why do they remove some of the maps? Is there a limit cap for the maps available?

16

Manned fishing boats.

AoEIV put to shame once again.

4 Likes
17

Not saying it isn’t historical but I don’t see the need to fix something that isn’t broken.

“Hire Hessians” was a good reference to the German mercenaries that fought for the British against the Americans and was a good fit for Jagers.

“Soldier Trade” is vague enough to be used for any German mercenary shipment. They could have used the name for a card that ships some of the new units like Giant Grenadiers.

18

they dont, they get consulate uhlans, which when sent are just vet uhlans with +10% stats, effectively royal guards unit.

I am not sure it is as big of a thing as some people make it out to be tbh, you get some unit with bonus stats that has shadow tech, but the shipments are costly, you can’t upgrade them with cards like the euro units, and u need a fort, which is a pretty big investment and a liability most of the time

not to mention they train much slower

19

I think they don’t really touch old civs because some long time AoE3 players won’t like that. Particularly the pros who like playing those civs a certain way.

2 Likes
20

They’ll tell you that is a great design that improves readability and AOE2 is popular without crews (but you are not allowed to compare other aspects of AOE2 and AOE4) and gameplay is more important than graphics and crews are still not perfectly realistic in AOE3 blahblahblah.

1 Like