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This article is about the buildings in Age of Empires IV. For buildings in other games, see Building. |
In Age of Empires IV, players expand their empire by constructing buildings to create units, research technologies, and support their population and economy.
Overview[]
Building mechanics[]
Like in the other installments in the series, buildings are constructed almost exclusively by Villagers. The more Villagers are tasked to a building, the faster it builds, with diminishing returns. Age of Empires IV returns mostly to the grid-based placement system of Age of Empires II. Except for walls, all buildings occupy a square area with specific number of tiles on the grid. The smallest buildings are 2 tiles x 2 tiles, while the largest is 6 tiles by 6 tiles. Almost the entirety of a building footprint blocks units from passing over it as soon as it begins construction. However, all buildings other than walls have a small area along the edge of their footprint through which units can pass even when the building is fully constructed. This means that, unlike in other games in the series, it is not possible to create an impassable barrier using buildings alone. Only walls, which do not follow the grid and can be placed freeform like in Age of Empires III or Age of Mythology, can completely block unit passage. New to Age of Empires IV, buildings can also interact with influence areas, either generating them or deriving some benefit from it.
Building placement is blocked by most stationary map resources, impassable terrain such as cliffs or deep water (except for the Dock), and other buildings. Stealth Forest, 'straggler' trees (lone trees not part of a forest), and felled trees are an exception to the resource placement restriction. Buildings placed over these resources will permanently remove them. Additionally, buildings placed on top of Shore Fish will temporarily remove them, but if the building is destroyed, the Shore Fish will return. If a building footprint is placed over allied or Gaia units, the units will automatically move to the edge of the building footprint and then continue their previous action if applicable. However, if a building footprint is placed over an enemy unit, that unit will block the construction of the building as long as it is there. Some buildings have special restrictions, such as not being able to be built too close to an enemy Town Center, or requiring a specific resource on which to be built.
Buildings cost resources to construct. This can be any one or more types of resources, but most standard buildings only cost wood. Resources are deducted as soon as the building footprint is placed, but they can be fully refunded if the player cancels the building at any point during its construction, as long as it hasn't taken damage. If a building does take damage before it is complete and then is canceled, only a portion of the resources are returned depending on how much damage the building took; the more damage taken, the fewer resources returned. If a building's hit points reach zero before it is completed, it will be destroyed and no resources will be refunded.
Damaging buildings[]
All buildings have hit point and armor statistics which determine their survivability against enemy attacks. Buildings are typically very resistant to ranged attacks since most of them have 50 ranged armor. They take moderate damage from melee units, which almost all attack buildings using a separate torch attack that deals fire damage. For this reason, buildings display a fire armor statistic in their UI instead of the melee armor stat that units have. Buildings are weak against most siege engines and many ships, which deal siege damage and/or bonus damage against them.
As soon as a Villager starts constructing a building, it starts out with 10% of its health, and starts gaining health at a rate dependent on its build time. In their unfinished state, buildings take 50% extra damage and will retain any damage taken once completed. Buildings will catch fire once they reach 25% of their maximum hit points. In Age of Empires IV, this is not purely cosmetic, as in this state, buildings will continue to passively lose 10 hit points per second until they reach 0 hit points and collapse, or until a Villager repairs them above the 25% threshold again.
Types of buildings[]
Buildings in Age of Empires IV are usually classified among several different types, both through common use or explicit unit type coding. Some buildings have more than one of these types.
- Economic buildings improve and expand the player's economy, and may contain economic technologies.
- Resource Drop-off buildings are a subcategory of economic buildings at which Villagers can drop off resources. They are usually limited to a single resource, although all resource drop off buildings will cause builders to deposit any held resource when completed.
- Military buildings produce military units and may contain technologies or other bonuses that improve these units.
- Defensive buildings defend areas of the map against enemy attacks either by dealing damage with their own built-in attacks or blocking enemy passage. Defensive buildings often cost stone.
- Walls are a subcategory of defensive building that can block off sections of the map. They have different placement mechanics than other buildings.
- Religious Buildings produce religious units or provide bonuses to these units.
- Technology Buildings typically cannot produce any units but contain a wide variety of technologies which improve various aspects of the civilization.
Landmarks[]
Landmarks are a special class of buildings used to advance to the next Age and cost food and gold to construct. They can be any one of the above types.
- Main article: Landmark
Building availability[]
Buildings can also be divided into generic and unique buildings. Almost all generic buildings are available to all civilizations. Some civilizations also have unique buildings. These may either replace a generic building in some capacity or they may have completely unique uses. A list of buildings separated by type and whether or not they are generic or unique is in the table below
The following table highlights generic buildings that are missing from civilizations' tech trees, and their replacements:
Unique buildings[]
- Main article: Unique building#Age of Empires IV
Changelog[]
- With the Season One Update, buildings under construction now receive 50% more damage.
- With the Season Two Update 17718, buildings that cost exclusively stone now cost stone to repair instead of wood.
List of buildings[]
| Buildings in Age of Empires IV | ||||||||||||||||
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