[PUP] July 2025 - Patch Notes

Age of Empires II: DE II - Discussion
1

A new PUP is out! For those who don’t want to bother checking them on Steam, I’ll paste them here.

GAME

Stability & Performance

  • Fixed a crash occurring when trying launch the game when Steam is closed.

  • Fixed a crash in Return of Rome which occured when playing a 8 AI extreme single player skirmish match on ludicrous size map.

Graphics

  • Added a new running animation for Jaguars.

  • Improved the fire visuals on Tarkan’s and Elite Tarkan’s torches.

  • Herdable animals no longer lose their player color upon death.

  • Added a chance for Hunnic Horse to use different Horse graphics instead of always using Horse A graphics.

  • Terrain cracks graphics (eye candy object) can no longer appear above unit graphics.

  • Updated the texture of “Ice, Navigable” terrain.

  • Fences on Pastures no longer receive outlines when they are behind other buildings.

  • Sheep graphics can no longer turn invisible in Return of Rome.

  • Snow graphics are now correctly displayed on buildings placed on snowy terrain.

Audio

  • Reduced the volume and frequency of Three Kingdoms hero unit selection and command sounds.

  • Adjusted the variation, frequency and volume of Chicken sounds.

  • The Tarkan attack sound effect has been updated to use an enhanced version of the legacy effect (also known as “thump”), which is more audible than the previous one.

  • Added a sound alert when queuing and training units with fewer than 5 remaining population.

  • This sound can be disabled in game options.

  • Fixed an issue preventing the Narrator dictating the text in the Technology Tree menu.

  • Narrator will now pronounce character-based words more consistently.

  • Fixed an issue preventing sound mods from functioning.

  • Fixed issues with screen narration handling on the Multiplayer Lobby screen, Quick Taunts Selection screen, Clans screen, Mods screen, Credits screen, Help Index screens, Quick Play and Ranked screens.

  • Cleaned up the menu narration system to improve menu narration.

  • Fixed many minor narration issues.

UI

  • Added negative regeneration rate display on UI for indication of lasting damage applied to the unit.

  • Fixed an issue where an incorrect number of queued farms and fish traps was displayed when having several Mills or Docks selected.

  • Fixed several instances of item display issues in the Technology Tree.

  • Adjusted the frame colors for regional buildings in the Technology Tree to be more distinct from common buildings.

  • The additional anti-building bonus of garrisoned rams is now correctly reflected in values in the attack tooltip.

  • Monks and Warrior Priests with Relics now display all stats on their UI, same as when not carrying Relics.

  • Resource gauge bar is no longer displayed for resources that are not being gathered, preventing it from being shown for decaying animals.

  • Updated Change to Melee Weapon icon and tooltip to be more generic and applicable for both Rathas and Immortals.

  • Fixed an issue where the auto-scout button was not displayed on the UI for animal scout units (Horses and Camels).

  • The auto-scout button is now always located in the same slot as the Stop button.

  • Random map seed is now displayed in the Objectives screen in single player and finished multiplayer games.

  • The map icon is now shown on the loading screen.

  • Added icons for some of the important game settings in the loading screen.

  • Added an indicator on the population count to alert when training units with fewer than 5 remaining population.

  • Removed the Keep icon from the Khitans and Hindustani technology tree.

  • Shipwright marked as unavailable in Huns Technology Tree to match the intended in-game availability.

  • Removed one of the two Transport Ship icons from the Japanese Technology Tree.

  • Removed Arson being displayed as a pre-requirement for Gambeson in Burgundians Technology Tree.

  • Elite Cannon Galleon marked as available in Korean and Vikings Technology Tree to match the intended in-game availability.

  • Two-men Saw marked as unavailable in Armenians Technology Tree to match the intended in-game availability.

  • Livestock killed isn’t counted anymore as unit killed in the post match statistics.

  • Fixed accessibility issue with focus handling ensuring that button focus is indicated by button visual style as well as highlight color.

  • Fixed issue where multiple buttons/tabs could appear to be focused at once.

  • Improved navigation hints on the Game Settings screen.

  • Fixed Colorblind Mode not applying to the Scouts tab in campaigns.

  • Increased anti-building bonus damage is now correctly displayed in the attack information tab for garrisoned rams.

  • Fixed issue where the player chat color in the multiplayer lobby was cached from the previous session.

  • Improved the button selection visual display when highlighting the DLC navigation icons on the main menu.

  • Added a text marque to places where the text became very small due to its length e.g. in the Taunts and Diplomacy menus

  • Modified Civilization Set dropdown in lobbies to radio buttons for increased visibility

  • Adjusted the multiplayer lobby so that the player and clan names have a higher contrast ratio to the back ground.

Hotkeys

  • Fixed an issue preventing research hotkeys from functioning when the “Select All Lumber/Mining Camps” hotkey is the same as “Select All Mule Carts”.

Multiplayer

  • Spectators should no longer be able to see the chosen civilizations before a match starts if the “Hide Civilizations” setting is enabled.

  • Added a game option to hide full lobbies from the lobby browser.

GAMEPLAY

General

  • Improved the assisted farm placement behavior to allow placing farms without delay in multiplayer games.

  • Assisted Farm placement properly functions when hovering over all food drop off buildings, including Pastures and Farms themselves.

  • Building Foundation graphics are now semi-transparent until construction commences.

  • Buildings under construction are now able to place gather point.

  • Huntable animals now evacuate quicker from building foundations which construction is about to start.

Fixes

  • Moving Kings no longer stop shortly after getting attacked.

  • Fixed an issue where the attack increase from power up for units with ranged attack had no actual effect.

  • Town Centers and Gates no longer receive incorrectly multiplied fire damage from attacks of units affected by Red Cliffs Tactics technology.

  • Units tasked to garrison into a building will no longer be immune to ballistics if the building is on elevation and they are not moving in a formation.

  • Pastures placed on amphibious terrain now change the terrain to amphibious.

  • Allowed Town Center foundations to set the gather point before their construction is complete.

  • Units at the front of a selected group will now move directly to a targeted location instead of regrouping.

  • Fixed an issue where Villagers would struggle to follow garrison commands when resources or a narrow space was in the way.

  • Fixed an issue where Villagers would easily get pushed into the opposite direction by colliding herdables.

  • Siege units will now successfully move through narrow gaps, even when issuing the move-command numerous times.

  • Fixed an edge case where units in formation could occasionally move over obstructions such as trees.

  • Fixed an issue where units would ignore shift-click commands if too many were queued at once.

  • Fixed an issue preventing Shift-queued gather points from working when placed on the minimap while holding the Shift key.

  • Stuck villagers or trader carts should always show up as idle now.

  • Fixed an issue where Fire Lancers on Stand Ground would stop when getting close to an enemy building.

  • Improved villager behavior to unstuck themselves when working close together.

  • Fixed an issue where Villagers were unable to steal other player’s Farms.

  • Fixed an issue that had the cheat “Polo” reveal map terrain and grid (should be done by the cheat “Marco”).

  • Fixed an issue preventing the “Small Trees” option to work correctly with the Enhanced Graphics Pack.

  • Fixed an issue that prevented kings from automatically running away when attacked.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented villagers from being ungarrisoned with the corresponding hotkey.

  • Prevented each pasture from having more than two villagers working on it.

  • Prevented rocket fired from destroyed Rocket Carts from dealing reduced damage.

  • Khitans’ Mounted Trebuchets now properly receive Team Bonuses affecting Camels.

  • Prevented players from using cheats to spawn Packed Town Centers and Kongming’s Lanterns in ranked matches.

  • Fixed an issue where converted Mule Carts for non Armenians/Georgians players could not research technologies.

Campaign

General

  • Liu Bei 3: ‘The Scholar and the Sandal Maker’: The player can no longer have duplicate heroes.

  • Sun Clan 1: ‘The Imperial Seal’: Prevented Fortified Towers from disappearing in the fog of war when retaken by the enemy.

  • Tamar 4: ‘Tamar The Builder’: The yellow faction “Alexios” will now correctly recognize the player as their ally.

  • Victors and Vanquished: ‘Mstislav (1203)’: Replaced Priests with Pagan priests.

Balance Changes

General

  • Town Center arrows projectile speed increased from 7 → 8.

  • Town Center arrows projectile size increased from 0.1 → 0.15.

  • Fortified Gate pierce armor increased from 6 → 7.

  • Capped Ram melee armor increased from -3 → -2.

  • Siege Ram melee armor increased from -3 → -1.

  • Siege Tower cost reduced from 200 wood 160 gold → 100 wood 120 gold.

  • Treadmill Crane cost changed from 300 food 200 wood → 200 wood 50 stone.

  • Treadmill Crane research time reduced from 50 seconds → 20 seconds.

  • Traction Trebuchet conversion resistance increased from 0 → 3.

  • Heavy Rocket Cart upgrade cost reduced from 800 wood 750 gold → 800 wood 600 gold.

  • Skirmisher train time increased from 22 seconds → 26 seconds (Elite unchanged).

  • Pikeman bonus damage vs. Mameluke armor class reduced from 11 → 7.

  • Halberdier bonus damage vs. Mameluke armor class reduced from 11 → 7.

  • Food from animals killed by Military or Buildings no longer spoils and can now be gathered by Villagers.

  • Fixed an issue where secondary projectiles from Mangonel-line would deal no damage when using attack ground.

Bohemians

  • Hussite Wagon

    • Secondary projectile damage reduced from 4 → 3.

Bulgarians

  • Krepost

    • Can now research Elite Konnik upgrade.

Burgundians

  • Militia

    • Cost reduced from 30 food 30 gold → 30 food 25 gold.

    • Spearman armor class removed.

Celts

  • Furor Celtica

    • Effect of additional HP now also applies to Trebuchets.

Franks

  • Bearded Axe

    • Effect of additional range for Throwing Axemen increased from +1 → +2.

  • (Elite) Throwing Axeman

    • Train time reduced from 17 seconds → 13 seconds.

    • Upgrade cost reduced from 1000 food 750 gold → 850 food 550 gold.

Goths

  • Hunters +5 attack vs. wild boar civilization bonus removed.

Gurjaras

  • Food from Starting Forage Bush civilization bonus increased from 125 → 175 each.

  • Camel Scout

    • Base train time reduced from 48 seconds → 22 seconds.

    • Attack when reaching Feudal Age increased from 4 → 5.

Hindustanis

  • Shatagni

    • Cost increased from 500 food 300 gold → 500 food 650 gold.

Khmer

  • (Elite) Ballista Elephant

    • Heavy Siege armor reduced from 20 → 10.

    • Elite HP reduced from 290 → 280.

Koreans

  • (Elite) Turtle Ship

    • Rocket projectile damage adjusted from 6 pierce → 4 melee, Elite 8 → 4 melee.

    • Rocket projectile bonus damage vs. Ships adjusted from +5 → 0, Elite +6 → +1.

Magyars

  • (Elite) Magyar Huszar

    • HP increased from 75 → 80, Elite from 85 → 90.

    • Attack increased from 9 → 10, Elite from 10 → 11.
      Train time reduced from 14 seconds → 12 seconds.

Persians

  • Savar

    • Upgrade cost increased from 1000 food 600 gold → 1200 food 600 gold.

Poles

  • Folwark

    • Instant food collection from nearby Farms increased from 8% → 10%.

Portuguese

  • Organ Gun

    • Maximum range reduced from 7 → 6 (Elite unchanged).

Romans

  • Scorpions cost less gold civilization bonus reduced from -60% → -50%.

Saracens

  • Elite Mameluke

  • Base HP reduced from 90 → 80.

Shu Shu

  • Lumberjacks generate food in addition to wood collection rate reduced from 10% → 9%

  • War Chariot

    • Cost increased from 50 food 90 gold → 65 food 90 gold.

Sicilians

  • Soldiers receive less bonus damage civilization bonus increased from 33% → 40%

  • (Elite) Serjeant

    • Cost reduced from 60 food 25 gold → 55 food 25 gold.

  • Donjon

    • Can now research Elite Serjeant upgrade.

    • Can now research Pikeman and Halberdier upgrade.

Spanish

  • (Elite) Conquistador

    • Cost changed from 60 food 70 gold → 70 food 60 gold.

Wei Wei

  • Receive one free Villager for each Mill, Lumber- and Mining Camp technology changed → Receive one free Villager when researching any economic technology.

Wu Wu

  • Military production buildings and Docks provide food when constructed civilization bonus reduced from +65 food → +55 food.

  • Jian Swordsman

    • Melee armor reduced from 3 → 2.

    • Shock Infantry armor reduced from 1 → 0.

Wild Animals

  • Wild Chicken

    • HP changed from 5 → 3

  • Crocodile

    • Receives +5 charge attack with 30 seconds recharge

    • Running speed changed from 1.05 → 0.885

    • Snow Leopard and Jaguar

    • Running speed changed from 1.05 → 1.19

  • Dire Wolf

    • receives same stats as Grey Wolf, except for:

      • HP 50

      • Attack 4

      • Regeneration rate 10

  • Rabid Wolf

    • HP changed from 30 → 20

    • Attack changed from 5 → 3

    • Deals lasting damage to its targets (-15 HP/min for 20 seconds)

    • Receives black glow particle for visual distinction

  • Komodo Dragon

    • Deals lasting damage to its targets (-6 HP/min for 15 seconds)

    • Running speed changed from 1.05 → 0.885

  • Brown Bear

    • HP changed from 25 → 30

  • Polar Bear

    • HP changed from 25 → 30

    • Attack changed from 3 → 4

Chronicles

General

  • (Elite) Hoplite:

    • Range increased from 0.3 → 0.5

    • Melee armor decreased from 2 → 1, Elite from 3 → 2

    • Armor aura now gives +1 melee armor for every two nearby (Elite) Hoplites, up to a maximum of +3.

    • Bonus damage against buildings decreased from 4 → 2

    • Training time changed from 24 to 28 seconds, Elite from 21 → 25

  • (Elite) War Chariot:

    • Trample damage radius decreased from 0.5 → 0.4

    • Reload time increased from 1.8 → 2.0

    • Elite War Chariot upgrade time increased from 50 → 90

    • Elite War Chariot HP changed from 140 → 125

Achaemenids

  • Stable Technologies research faster bonus no longer applies to Elite War Chariot incorrectly

  • Economic Town Center upgrade:

    • Aura radius increased from 8 → 9 tiles

    • Work rate bonus for nearby Villagers decreased from 15% to 10%

    • Research time increased from 25 → 50

  • Military Town Center upgrade:

    • No longer applies any effects to nearby buildings

    • Aura radius increased from 8 → 16 tiles

    • Aura now heals nearby military units by 20 HP/min, and increases their movement speed by 15%

  • Defensive Town Center upgrade:

    • Cost changed from 225 stone → 50 stone and 100 wood

    • Research time decreased from 50 → 15

  • Sparabaras:

    • No longer causes Spearmen to give additional armor to nearby units

    • Cost changed from 300 wood 200 gold to 350 food 300 gold

    • Research time increased from 40 → 50

    • No gives Immortals and Spearmen +2/+1 armor

  • Karda:

    • Technology is now replaced with ‘Sagaris’

    • Sagaris gives melee cavalry units +2 unblockable damage to units

    • Sagaris costs 600 food 550 gold, and takes 50 seconds to research

Athenians

  • Policies:

  • Upgrade scaling cost changed from 50 gold / 100 gold / 150 gold for each successive change to free / 25 gold / 50 gold

  • Economic Policy:

    • No longer increases Villager workrate by 7%

    • Now increases the gather rate of food from trees by 50%

  • Military Policy:

    • No longer provides a training speed increase

    • Now decreases the wood cost of military production buildings (except Siege Workshops) by 33%

    • Gold generated from melee unit kills increased from 3 → 5

  • Naval Policy:

    • No longer provides a training speed increase to archers and ships

    • Gold discount on archers and ships increased from 15% to 20%

  • Iphicratean Tactics:

    • Technology is now replaced with ‘Trierarchies’

    • Trierarchies improves the charge attack of the Monoreme-line, making it recharge faster, deal more damage, and now deal trample damage

    • Trierarchies costs 500 wood and 450 gold, and takes 50 seconds to research

  • Eisphora:

    • Percentage of the Hoplite gold cost replaced with food changed from 33% → 50%

    • Cost changed from 600 food and 750 gold → 500 food and 350 gold

  • Delian League:

    • No longer increases the movement speed of archers and Gastraphetoroi

    • Now makes Ports and Shipyards increase the attack speed of nearby warships

    • Cost changed from 900 food 600 gold → 500 wood 300 gold

Spartans

  • Hippeus:

    • Hippeis now receive 50% stronger benefits from the Polemarch aura

  • Polemarch:

    • Pierce armor in the Archaic Age changed from 3 → 1

    • HP increased from 40/55/60/80 through the ages → 40/65/80/120

    • Speed changed from 1.15 → 1.05 in Archaic/Civic Age and 1.15 for Classical/Imperial Age

    • Train time changed from 75/60/50 for Civic/Classical/Imperial Age → 50/35/25

  • Hippagretai:

    • No longer increases the training speed of Polemarchs

  • Ephorate:

    • Polemarch aura healing bonus decreased from 50 HP/min → 30 HP/min for any units that previously received this healing rate

    • Healing no longer applies to ships or siege weapons

    • Polemarch aura radius no longer increases with this technology

  • Morai:

    • Cost changed from 150 food and 175 gold → 100 food and 75 gold

  • Xyphos:

    • Now gives +1 attack to Hoplites and the Monoreme-line for every 5 nearby enemies, instead of every 10 nearby enemies

    • Cost changed from 400 food 300 gold → 300 food 250 gold

  • Krypteia:

    • Technology is now replaced with ‘Agoge’

    • Agoge increases the maximum armor gained for Hoplites from their aura by +1/+1 armor

    • Agoge costs 500 food 400 gold, and takes 40 seconds to research

  • Peloponnesian League:

    • No longer increases the training speed of ships

    • Fort gold generation rate increased from 20 gold/min → 45 gold/min

    • Monoreme-line now receives +5 damage vs Antiquity Galleys

    • Cost changed from 700 food 400 gold → 700 food 450 gold

    • Siege Engineers is now available

RANDOM MAPS

New Maps

  • Aquarena:

    • Sea walls shelter players’ bases from early aggression, but rich oyster beds and neutral Ports for trading will create a naval struggle across the map.

  • Sardis:

    • Break out of your walled base and seize the burning city of Sardis! Capture the central Trade Workshop to generate extra resources.

  • Graupel:

    • Use your transport ship to quickly reach the mainland and settle your base. Despite the harsh weather, food is plentiful. Keep an eye out for where your opponents may have settled.

  • Stranded:

    • Quickly abandon your starting island to look for more prosperous land nearby. Construct a town center to seize the resource-rich island, but beware of predators lurking in the dense jungles.

  • Mired:

    • Rush out of the boggy lowlands to build your town centre and claim the rich wildlife nearby. But act fast - your enemy is close and aiming to do the same.

  • Border Dispute:

    • With both allies and foes right next to each other, there will be an immediate clash for food in the central swamp. Lure in as many animals as possible to your town center before it’s too late.

  • Chaos Pit:

    • Trapped in a forest clearing with no gold in sight, you’ll need to carve a path through dense woods to reach the riches beyond. Stay alert - enemies lurk nearby.

  • Murkwood:

    • Establish your town centre deep within the shadowy swamps. Resources are plentiful, and the surrounding waters teem with fish and wildlife ripe for harvesting.

  • Forest Breach (special map):

    • Some players find themselves trapped within forests, while others immediately clash with their neighbors.

Map Balance

  • Fortress:

    • Players no longer receive 2 Kings when playing Regicide mode.

  • Nomad:

    • Fixed an issue where the land could fail to generate.

Random Map Scripting

  • Constants no longer get rounded to integer values when used in math operations.

  • Fixed an issue where the land and amphibious placeholder objects couldn’t be placed on unbuildable land terrains.

  • Allowed use of float-format values in land generation commands: land_position, land_percent, left_border, right_border, top_border, bottom_border, circle_radius.

  • Added a new land_conformity parameter for the create_land command.

    • Accepts one integer parameter with values from -100 to 100. The higher the value, the more the additional tiles set by land_percent or number_of_tiles conform to the base_size of the land, therefore not creating huge deviations from the original shape. Negative values actively discourage the behavior.

  • Added Spring Mod Terrains

  • Fixed an issue on Black Forest making resources spawn only around the starting Town Centers.

Additions

  • Animals, terrains, trees, oysters, placeholder objects for random maps, and some eye candy objects which were added in previous patches, as well as the new items listed below, are now available in Return of Rome.

  • Added a new type of huntable animal which holds 35 gold and can be gathered without dropping the resources

    • Red Fox (1955)

    • Arctic Fox (1958)

  • Added new small unpushable huntable animals:

    • Hare (2098, 2099)

    • Arctic Hare (2100)

  • Added a new herdable animal:

    • Llama B (white variation) (1963)

  • Added a new predator animal:

    • Arctic Wolf (1965)

  • Added new terrains which were previously featured in the Spring Terrains mod:

    • Grass, Flowers 1 (122)

    • Grass, Flowers 2 (123)

    • Snow (Soft) (124)

    • Snow (Soft), Light (125)

    • Snow (Soft), Strong (126)
      Ice (Soft) (127)

AI

General

  • Sending multiple military explorers no longer causes the exploration to fail.

  • Fixed an issue where civilian explorers would sometimes freeze instead of exploring.

  • Fixed an issue where AI foundations may not get cancelled when sn-disable-defend-groups is used.

  • Fixed an issue forcing AI to repair towers.

MODDING

General

  • Added KEEP_MODS_AFTER_CRASH launch parameter to keep the mods enabled if the previous session has crashed.

  • Added a new ExtendedDifficultyList parameter for custom campaign layout json files; setting it to true enables Easiest and Legendary difficulty options for the campaign.

  • History screen data is no longer hardcoded; now contained in the history.json file in widgetui.

  • The amount of Technology Tree Preview categories is no longer limited to a hardcoded amount. The label widgets for each display category in techtreepreviewpanel.json must now be named LabelN and ItemsN.

  • Allowed stingers (Task 157) to be applied by Projectile (Type 60) units.

  • Fixed an issue where Multiply Resource effect type did not perform the correct action when used in effect amount commands.

  • Spawn Unit effect type used in effect amount commands is now able to spawn gaia-only objects.

  • Unit voices for DLC civilizations (starting from Romans) are now moddable in non-data mods.

  • Added a new flag 16 for Sequence Type graphic attribute to allow reverse playback of the animation.

Scenario Editor

  • Added an option to reset the starting view for the player.

  • Added a reset function to the “Options > Set View” button.

  • Correctly added Wei technologies data in the “Research Technology” trigger conditions.

XS Scripting

  • Allowed calling xs functions from technology effects and effect amount commands by setting resource 33 to a positive integer value. This would call xs function EffectFunctionN with playerId argument, where N is the value the resource was set to, playerId is the player who fired the effect which modified resource 33. These functions are stored in a new Effects.xs file.

  • xsTaskAmount, xsTask, xsRemoveTask functions are no longer limited to scenario games.

  • Fixed an issue where object group-targeting tasks added by xsTask function were overwriting the previously added tasks.

  • Added support for all task attributes to be set in xsTaskAmount.

  • Added a new xsResetTaskAmount function which resets all task values set by xsTaskAmount to their default values, avoiding unintentional applying of previously used task attributes.

Data

  • Added support for multiple train location for units.

  • Added support for multiple research location for technologies

  • New adjustable parameters for Task 10: Fly

    • Carry Check: Distance the unit is allowed to move from its starting position before picking a new direction to return closer

    • If 0, no limit

    • Search Wait Time: Time in seconds that the unit pauses, playing the idle animations, when changing direction

    • Work Value 1: Unit speed multiplier while roaming

    • Work Value 2: Unit ID to avoid

    • Work Range: Minimum distance to the unit to avoid that will be maintained while roaming

    • Terrain: Terrain Table that the unit will be allowed to roam on. If -1, use the unit’s terrain table

    • Moving Graphic, Proceeding Graphic, Working Graphic: Graphics used for the unit moving around, randomly alternates between them

    • Currently Working Graphic is unused, and Standing Graphic is used instead

    • If none of these is set, use the unit’s normal Walking Graphic

    • Unused Flag: If set to 1, only roam around if the unit is owned by Gaia

KNOWN ISSUES

  • Units firing multiple projectiles will occasionally not fire all their projectiles under some circumstances.

    • This behavior should be improved compared to the previous patch, but still fail under specific conditions.
16 Likes
2

Personal note:
Kinda sus that there are balance changes for the BfG civs.

2 Likes
3

Smells like more bfg civs coming?

7 Likes
4

Most likely, yep.

A few changes I noticed:

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The loading screen now shows the map that will be played.

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The pop count starts flashing once you’re close to being housed.

16 Likes
5

Stone is worth a lot more than food in the long term, but short term, the tech is easier to get. Especially in castle age (if you’re doing tower rush or castle drop)

Cheapest unit in the game now (except maybe karambits, a castle unit). Should be quite spammable, which will make them dangerous (especially if accompanied by skirms)

That’s a change from pierce to melee damage. Will need to test, but should be a damage increase against fire ships.

Fox hunts - an old past time that is now added to the game. This should be interesting.

These things will need to be tested (which is why they’re in a PUP), since things don’t always work out in practice as they do in theory (or as people would expect).

4 Likes
6

Lots of great balance changes and QoL improvements overall. I especially liked the Hussite Wagon and Ballista Elephant nerfs. I’ve always been concerned about the balance of high HP/armored ranged units. I wish Shatagni itself was nerfed instead of just increasing the cost, but hey, still better than nothing.

However, a few of the changes are kinda spotty:

  1. No buff for Janissaries? Not even slightly better accuracy, a cost reduction, armor or attack boost—anything to compensate for the range loss? This unit’s attack dispersion (at least for the elite version) is still waiting to match the Hand Cannoneer.
  2. Another nerf for Organ Guns? Really?
  3. Magyar Hussars look way too strong now, not a fan. Same for Sicilian Cavaliers.
  4. Still wish the chicken funneling into the TC thing would be fixed.
4 Likes
7

Looks to me like it was. At the very least, I wasn’t able to get hares or chickens to go around buildings (or building foundations)

And turtle ships: their charged attack deals 20 damage to fire ships, but normal attack does 4. So 6 turtle ships can one-shot fire ships. Still not great against them from the looks of it, but I think they’re a fair bit better than they were previously (but I don’t know how well they did previously all that well).

8

Funny story - I went to the Steam page to see if I had the achievement for Quetzalcoatl (I didn’t, and just earned it tonight) and happened to encounter the PUP patch notes. So I read them a bit before resuming.

9

Man look at this… Why do they put more effort in making free patches that in payed dlcs?

5 Likes
10

Whaaaaat??? Why did they do that? I don’t like this at all!

5 Likes
11

Prevent laming? 20 characters

3 Likes
12

Yea but it was fun…

1 Like
13

Why? Just why? This was a core mechanic of the game.

1 Like
14

It’s still just a preview. If enough people say they don’t like it, it can be rolled back.

15

lol, if only the same is true for Wei Shu Wu on ranked

8 Likes
16

Chance of that happening is very low.

1 Like
17

I really like a lot of these changes, especially the throwing axeman buff and the roman scorpion nerf. But I think these will be really overpowered:

  • Flemish Militia - for being a strong melee generalist that is cost effective against both knights and longswords, not having the spearman armor class is kind of insane. It’s like a strictly better fire lancer, since it doesn’t lose to swordsmen. I plan to try burgundian flemish + archer play in feudal once the patch comes.
  • Magyar Huszar - this unit now beats knights cost-effectively by a mile, while also being able to become a trash unit for a very low tech cost.
  • Serjeant - Now costing only 80 total and being able to beat paladin cost effectively, while having the pierce armor of a paladin, with also the buffs to donjons making it more accessible.

I’m also somewhat concerned about Sicilian Cavalier, with even less bonus damage taken, and Poles Cavalier, with even better food eco. And I agree that the Organ Gun nerf is really unnecssary. That unit is already overrated. SOTL has a video showing how it already kinda loses to archers, which makes me view it as a worse scorpion.

5 Likes
18

Will coming patch fix issue of Jurchen & Khitan not registry in victory?

19

I like that Franks got buffed after 10 years being nerfed.

Good patch in General. Nothing is over buffed or over nerfed.

Not sure -3% HP to Ballista elephants will change something but we will see. I’d rather reduce the collision with these elephants instead of HP.

A bit sad that no change was made for Aztecs to make them more specific. I’d make a mechanic for better combination of Jaguar + Monks to make the attack boost of Jaguars less chaotic and complicated.

20

Yeah, seems like it. Maybe in next patch, they will get Shock Infantry armor class.