New surprise DLC on 25th anniversary?

[Tyranno13]

@ReelBigFishBoom

I think the Red Bull Ladder qualification system might have had something to do with it.

Sure. Just wish that had been explained at the time. Proper communication goes a long way.

@ReelBigFishBoom

I think it’s likely we’ll get the DLC announcement at Red Bull Wololo itself.

Well, it’s the most likely at the moment.

It seems possible that a reveal at RBW, for a November 14th release date could be a cute way of doing it. But I guess it’s done when it’s done, and we will see it then.

What gives me hope for it being RBW is the youtuber comment about “something big they cannot talk about, soon”. But like everything we have seen so far, this could mean something else. Everything has been so tight-lipped, and everything we have gathered, no matter how solid, could have another explanation.

[YeshuaE11]

@Tyranno13

“something big they cannot talk about, soon”

Which youtuber said that?

[Tyranno13]

@YeshuaE11

Which youtuber

This one:

Could be something. Could be nothing.

[YeshuaE11]

That is indeed interesting. Last sunday at the WDC2 final, Nachoaoe (an argentinean youtuber which will be casting RBW) said that he already prepared videos for the next two weeks after RBW as he will stay in Spain for that time before coming back and continue streaming, but with the same tone of not wanting to say too much as GL. As you said, could mean something and could mean nothing.

[RatcicleFan]

@StereoQuasar163

I dont think it will be removed because they worked a lot to balance this unit for 20 years, but i think they can make it regional unit or just make it a stable unit just like they made elephant archer as archery range unit

It was only added because the devs had to add the Koreans very shortly before the final release, and I guess they didn’t have time to animate the Hwacha properly. This is no longer a concern. I believe the devs can very easily make the new unit have functionally the same stats.

[ReelBigFishBoom]

This isn’t necessarily new DLC related, but Tatoh was a co-caster for Rage Forest for one set with daniela_aoe a while ago and he said, regarding siege towers (paraphrasing) that “oh I thought they changed those to be 2-tile range? … Maybe I’m accidentally leaking something here” so it may be possible that in the next balance update (possibly the DLC release itself) that they’re changing Siege Towers to be able to jump two layers of wall, or over a house etc

[Tyranno13]

@ReelBigFishBoom

so it may be possible that in the next balance update (possibly the DLC release itself) that they’re changing Siege Towers to be able to jump two layers of wall, or over a house etc

Or they just mis-remembered something. Always leave room for the dumbest option.

After looking at updates before the reveals of other DLCs, it seems work was going on right up until they actually were shown (and afterwards). So there being more work on them is no indication that it won’t be soon.

[conqueror060]

This: Changed depots in microsoft_staging branch

[conqueror060]

also today we had again ca_staging in the new DLC

[Tyranno13]

@conqueror060

Changed depots in microsoft_staging branch

Oh that is just a summery of the updates in the update history.

@conqueror060

also today we had again ca_staging in the new DLC

After checking the updates prior to release/reveals, there isn’t any specific one that indicates anything. I think we are just going to have to wait, and can’t glean anything from the updates other than if it’s still being updated or not.

While we wait, another reminder of the evidence so far:

• Filthydelphia’s Chinese level not included with V&V and an identical Japanese level created from scratch instead. Even though there is space on the map for a Chinese level.
• Temujin level has changed lines regarding the Xi Xia and Jin, when no other such changes have happened in any other V&V level.
• Traditional Chinese language is updated first for the DLC, despite normally it being languages in alphabetical order for every other update. Hindi language was also updated first before Dynasties of India.

There is nothing hinting towards the Americas, Africa, Europe or other parts of Asia, meaning we can consider all them unlikely. I would also add that adding civs from Europe, especially those with Eastern European and/or Mediterranean architecture seems even less likely, given peoples frustration with the sheer volume of them lately. There is still the chance of it being a different kind of DLC, but they have never done non-civ DLCs twice in a row before.

Since this is also the year of the 25th and 5th anniversaries respectively, I feel that this might be when we finally see such much-requested changes like regional monks and/or unique castles.

I would hope that if a civ like Tibetans gets added, that regional monks do as well. So we can see them using more appropriate-looking models for the unit.

[FloosWorld]

@Tyranno13

@Velk413

they’ve done that kind of thing in the past. Just sayin’

When was that? Can’t remember.

ROR I think? That was a side note at the 25th Anniversary stream

[Tyranno13]

@FloosWorld

That was a side note at the 25th Anniversary stream

I meant after/end of RBW.

[SamplingBoot796]

Currently in final testing

[Quasibrodo]

We had some “final testing” a few days ago.

Hard to know exactly what this means without understanding their naming conventions. Maybe this is each campaign/civ getting it’s final testing. Maybe last week they really thought it was final testing, then some issues popped up and they had to do another round of investigating, fixing, and testing.

Regardless tho, “final_test” does seem to be a good sign that DLC 5 is getting close to being done.

[Quasibrodo]

So i dug into this a bit more.

I think something closer to the first explanation is correct.

So I went back thru months of the changelog.

Let’s start with the July 16th “microsoft_build_final_test”. That preceded the July 19th map balance update, and the effected depots were 813781 and 813784. Which seems to be associated with the base game, whose app id is 813780.

Looking through the depot numbers, they seem to close to the app id #s. Looking at the app id #s they’re all multiples of 10 (with exception of the enhanced graphics pack), which makes sense. You have an id for the app then give 10 id spots for depots for updates to said app. seems quite plausible to me.

Also I found this, which shows a bunch of depots created for DLC 5. It is consistent with the depot / appid correlation theory. I suppose it’s not proof the same was done from previous dlcs, but it’s all consistent with that being the case.

the next “microsoft_build_final_test” occurs on August 14th, affects depots related to the base game, another unknown app with the description of “(Phoenix - Full Game)”, the DLC 5 app, and slightly surprising to me, RoR.

Then there are frequent “microsoft_build_final_test”, from then on. I doubt they thought the dlc was nearly done, found issues, rinse and repeat for two months. so it’s probably closer to a certain civ/campaign/something is in final testing with each one of these final testing builds.

Breaking down affected DLCs

• LotW has a microsoft_staging on august 14th. nothing newer, no final tests.
• DotD has a tantalus_staging_2 on august 9th. nothing newer, no final tests.
• DoI has a tantalus_staging_4 on september 18th. nothing newer, no final tests
• RoR has a microsoft_build_final_test 3 hours ago, and much more recent activity than the other released dlcs.
• TMR has a ca_staging_3 on august 30th. nothing newer, no final tests.
• V&V has a tantalus_staging_3 from yesterday, tho I can’t find any final tests. it has some recent activity, tho not as much as RoR.

tho the base game and dlc 5 have FAR more updates to their depots than any of the previous dlcs, which would be expected.

Now, if someone has better information please do correct me, but I’m guessing the dlcs only contain the campaigns, and unlock the civ which is in the base game. Firstly prithviraj campaign is playable to anyone who one DE even if you don’t own DoI. Secondly if you’re playing multiplayer, and your opponent is playing a civ from a dlc you haven’t bought, you wouldn’t want that civs uu assets in the dlc. your machine wouldn’t have a file to reference to draw that unit.

But that’s probably not true with RoR. While the romans civ is probably in the base game, all the aoe1 content is in RoR.

Now there hasn’t been any significant changes to RoR since last december. maybe it’s just a few balance changes, maybe it’s the last few campaigns finally being ported over, maybe it’s just bug fixes, or maybe they have a solution for cross play. impossible to say.

Doesn’t look like there’s any significant changes, perhaps no changes, coming for any of the other DLC campaigns (excluding V&V and it’s scenarios). Which while it isn’t proof dlc 5 is focused on china, it’s not incongruent with the china theory. according to the wiki all of the chinese campaign and scenario appearances are either in the base game, or V&V.

In summary, I think final testing refers to a given aspect of the game, not an indicator the dlc is necessarily close to completion (tho this late in the year I hope it’s close to completion), and it doesn’t seem like dlc 5 will affect the campaigns of Lotw, DotD, DoI, or TMR, tho it may affect some V&V scenarios.

[Tyranno13]

Nice to have someone else do the digging for a change haha!

Good work!

Although I couldn’t help another dig. They just did four “staging” in a row! I have never seen this before.

“Staging” means “ready” in some way, in coding terms, and doing it multiple times in a row might be them giving each new campaign and civ a “tick” that they are complete…one last wave of checks.

[PersiasRerising]

So 4 staging in a row. How many staging were there in total?
The 4 in a row could be 2 new civs and 2 new campaigns.

[Quasibrodo]

@Tyranno13

They just did four “staging” in a row! I

@PersiasRerising

The 4 in a row could be 2 new cigs and 2 new campaigns.

actually looking at the branches, each company has multiple stagings. MS, FE, Capture Age (I think, pretty sure that’s CA stands for) and Tantalus.

It doesn’t make sense for the updated company branches to indicate they’re close to done. You wouldn’t have multiple “main” branches. Seems to me you have various branches for each company and changes are pushed back into the parent branch.

ms also has a nightly build, a final test, and a final.

So probably it’s more like everyone works on the various staging branches, those changes get pushed into the nightly branch at the end of every day, then when you have some new features that are ready to test you push the changes from nightly to final test, and when testing is done, those completed and tested features from final test are pushed into final.

There’s also a pup branch and a ms_playtest branch. Both of those were last changed before the public branch.

[Tyranno13]

@PersiasRerising

The 4 in a row could be 2 new civs and 2 new campaigns.

Unlikely to be that exact.

Also there was just a 5th one.

@Quasibrodo

those changes get pushed into the nightly branch at the end of every day

Bingo. It’s more just a nightly thing to make their job easier when they get back to it.

[Quasibrodo]

@Quasibrodo

that are ready to test you push the changes from nightly to final test, and when testing is done, those completed and tested features from final test are pushed into final.

tho looking at update history, final builds seem to precede final tests. so many i’ts that final is pre testing, and after test, it’s final_test to mean it has been tested.