(This post has been copied over from the AOE4 Steam PUP Forums, which require that you own AOE4 on Steam to access. You can see the original dev post here: Steam Community :: Error)
Patch Update Notes (v12851)– March 24th
A preview update is here! The Age of Empires IV Public Update Preview build has just been updated to align more closely with what will be officially released in the Spring update. To coincide with this update, the Age IV PUP has been extended through the weekend to Monday, March 28th at 10am PT (1700 UTC).
Thank you everyone for your participation in the Public Update Preview! Please continue to report bugs and provide feedback here on the Steam PUP forum. Happy gaming!
UPDATED DATES:
END - Monday, March 28th @ 10:00 am PT (1700 UTC)
FORUMS CLOSE - Tuesday, March 29th @ 10:00 am PT (1700 UTC)
RELEASE NOTES – BUILD 12851Below is a list of the major changes to this build from the original PUP Release Notes. Please be aware that this is not a comprehensive list of changes and is subject to further change before the official release of the Spring Update.
Balance Changes:
Stone Wall Tower cost increased from 200 to 300 stone
SUL Herbal Medicine technology moved from the Dark Age to the Castle Age
CHI Imperial Official train time reduced from 30 to 20 seconds (This is reverting the change from the original PUP release notes)
SUL and ABB orchard bonus reduced from +250 to +100 food
RUS Banded Arms bonus range decreased from +1.5 to +0.5
Bug Fixes:
Attempting to observe a modded game when you do not have the same mods enables should no longer result in a crash
Improvements made to sheep to allow for easier selection
Selection tool should now prioritize siege unit selection over building selection when the unit overlaps with a building
What about Granaries? These are a scam and not worth building. Why are they not buffed and still nerfed?
This patch is an overall nerf for Chinese. Chinese used to always go song in competitive games and save 300 wood on villages. Now you save 75 less wood by going Song. Granaries won’t be used.
Why are the devs not restoring the Clocktower nerfs? What about giving Chinese some much needed Landmark buffs? English are getting buffs on their less used Landmarks, so are HRE. But Chinese Landmarks continue to stay terrible.
If this patch goes live then Chinese will keep getting ignored on most maps as other civs can do the same but better than Chinese.
HRE gets some nice changes, for example buffing siege units which lasts 60 seconds now. HRE will have more variety which is good. But why can changes like these not be done for Chinese?
I really like those changes, basically every single one of them.
Rus change in itself is also good I think, because that range right now is obnoxious. But they will probably need a small buff somewhere else, because they feel to be on the weaker side right now, if they don’t get to their lategame (which they don’t on most maps).
Abassid and Delhi orchard nerfs are most welcomed!
Stone towers and walls should move to age 3 instead of adding cost.
China IO time revert is fine, would devs consider to lower the cost of Granary, I will love this patch.
Rus are nerfed too hard I think… It is related to the ongoing war? It is already at the bottom and should receive some compensation for Age III strength, especially horse archers.
I agree.
I think IO costing gold is fine, but granary could defo use a buff.
I cant see any situation where any player would want to build a granary on age2, you are paying 250w, and also there is the wood invested on farms for only a small gather rate bonus.
Nothing happened to stone walls? The change was to stone towers which are heavily abused with Chinese stone tower rush and delhi castle maa stone tower rush. So increasing the build time snd cost will basically make those strats less impactful
these changes are really nice. I also agree that IO costing gold is fine, but granary reaally needs to have the cost reduced.
More features that I would love to see are the button to enlarge/shrink the minimap size, and some buttons to include/exclude resources of choices on the map. Sometimes you couldn’t find relics or a boar becuz it is hidden next to other resource symbols.
Rumors of China’s death have been greatly exaggerated. They removed the worst part with the 30s build speed. You’ll have to reallocate some extra resources on gold in the dark age due to the cost change but it’s not really the end of the world type stuff.
