Age of Empires IV features many different game modes and game settings for both single- and multiplayer play.
Skirmish[]
Skirmish is the basic single-player game mode used to play single games with and against computer controlled players (AIs). It is similar to the random map game mode of previous games. Besides the player, seven additional AIs can be added, as long as the map size supports it. The player settings that can be chosen for all players are: player color, player civilization, player team, and AI difficulty. Each AI's difficulty can be chosen independently, and any number from one to eight distinct teams can be created. The AI's difficulty is always set to 'intermediate' by default. Skirmish mode can also be used as a sandbox mode with no AI players at all, although some maps may generate completely differently from how they would with more than one player. Some maps are also not designed to spawn fairly or evenly with mismatched team sizes.
In Skirmish mode, players can adjust the game settings to tailor their experience as they desire. The 'Overview' tab presents a summary of all current game settings.
Game mode[]
The following game modes are available in skirmish mode by default:
- Standard: The standard competitive game mode. All players start with a Capital Town Center, six Villagers, and a scouting unit, with a few civilizations starting with less or more depending on their civilization bonuses.
- Empire Wars: Players start in the Dark Age but with significantly more Villagers and several additional buildings already constructed. Each civilization has a unique start that synergizes with their bonuses. In Empire Wars, players cannot change their starting Age or resources.
- Nomad: Similar to standard mode, except players start with one fewer Villager, no Capital Town Center and their Villagers are scattered around the map. They can build their Capital Town Center for free, and some civilizations have additional starting conditions.
- Sandbox: The same as standard, except all victory conditions are disabled
- Scenario: Fixes the conditions to whatever is those of a preset scenario
- Seasonal Game Modes: New updates often come with temporary or seasonal game modes, such as Conqueror's Cache, Chart a Course, Season's Feast, and Full Moon
Additionally, any user-created game modes downloaded through the Mods section will also appear here.
Win conditions[]
For most game modes, players can select which of the four victory conditions - landmarks, sacred, wonder, and dominion - apply to the game.
- Main article: Victory#Age of Empires IV
Game modifiers[]
Players can select whether or not they want specific tuning packs enabled and whether or not to allow cheats. Tuning packs modify the properties of specific entities, so are compatible with all game modes. Enabling cheats disables progression towards any civilization masteries or achievements.
Match options[]
- Display Player Scores: By default, player score is not shown. Players have the option to enable this
- Starting resources: Choose the amount of resources to start with. In the standard game mode, the options are as follows:
- Starting Age: Players can choose in which Age they start the game
- Map State: Players can choose to what level the map is explored:
- Concealed: Players only have Line of Sight on their starting units and buildings and the rest of the map is unexplored
- Explored: The entire map is explored, but Fog of War still covers it
- Revealed: The entire map is explored and players have visibility over all of it. There is no Fog of War
- Reveal on Elimination: Players can choose whether or not to reveal the map to eliminated players. For single player, this has no effect other than revealing the map slightly earlier, since by default the map is always revealed at the end of a game.
Map options[]
Players can select on which map they would like to play. Both generated maps and crafted maps appear on the map selection screen, on different tabs. They also have the option to select the map size, which governs the maximum amount of players, and the map biome. Players can also choose the distribution of starting locations. 'Teams Together' keeps all team members grouped together, while 'Random Locations' can have players spawning very close to or among their opponents. Players can also input a specific map seed if they want to play on one specific generation of a map.
Presets[]
A selection of preset games
The single player skirmish tab also gives players the ability to jump into various preset game lobbies, where many player and game settings are already set, each intended to offer different flavors of gameplay. The first two are always 'Solo Battle vs A.I', which is a 1 vs 1 against a computer-controlled opponent, and 'A.I. Teammates vs A.I', which is a either a 2 vs 2, 3 vs 3, 4 vs 4, or 2 vs 2 vs 2. There are eight different, rotating presets for each selection, each one choosing from different base game civilizations and maps. The rest of the four presets each 'feature' different civilizations, maps, win conditions, or team setups and are described using some flavor text that sets up the game's settings. They rotate daily from among a total of 52 choices. Only a single preset involves any civilizations released in paid DLC (the Byzantines), and there are no presets featuring maps beyond Season Six. The majority of presets involve civilizations and maps from the base game. Within these presets, it is still possible to change the game configurations, just like in a standard skirmish.
Multiplayer[]
Multiplayer games are played online, with or against other human players. There are three options: Quick Match, Ranked, and Custom games. In Quick Match and Ranked, players enter a queue and the game uses a matchmaking algorithm to set up different players with each other automatically. Once players have been matched and a map has been selected, there is only a very brief pre-game 'lobby' where the only options players can change are their player color and civilization. The game map is picked randomly from a specific map pool, although players get a certain number of 'downvotes' to select maps they do not wish to play. In 1 vs 1, downvoted maps will not be selected from the pool, but in team games, where the total number of downvotes among all players can exceed the number of maps, it will be possible for some players to play on maps they have downvoted if the overall number of downvotes on that map is small. Both Ranked and Quick Match use a hidden player rating to attempt to match players with other players of similar skill, both as allies and enemies. For team games, it is possible to create a group of players from an in-game friends list and search for games together, remaining together as allies. It is still possible to search for games with a larger player count than the premade team - any leftover players will be drawn from people queuing solo. Players in team games get assigned a random position on the map. Therefore, it is not possible to pick civilizations to specifically take advantages of potential benefits from playing in the 'pocket' or 'flank' positions.
Quick Match[]
Quick Match can be played in multiple game modes - standard, Empire Wars, Nomad, and seasonal game modes. Players can choose to search for team games of any or all team sizes (between a maximum of two teams), or they can search specifically for free-for-all games. Free-for-all games always have eight players and pit every player against each other, and are the only games to include the Dominion victory condition. To try to avoid the potential situation of people creating alliances hidden from the other players, it is not possible to queue for free-for-all games in a group. The Quick Match standard map pool contains nearly every map in the game, and each player has 15 downvotes to distribute among them. The one exception is free-for-all games, which are always played on either Land MegaRandom or MegaRandom, and players can choose to downvote one of them.
In Quick Match, players also have the ability to search for games against A.I opponents. Only the standard game mode is available, and games can only be played with two teams of equal size.
Ranked[]
In Ranked mode, players play against each other with the standard game mode and victory conditions and can earn an in-game ranking depending on their performance. The ranks, in order from lowest to highest, are: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, and Conqueror, and each rank is divided further into three tiers. Ranked mode is played in 'seasons', which are typically several months long, and at the end of which players earn cosmetic rewards depending on their final rank and their rank resets. The beginning of a new season is always punctuated by a major game update or the release of a DLC. Ranked play is available in either solo or team mode, and each one has its own ranking and map pool. Ranked map pools only contain ten maps that rotate from season to season, and sometimes within a season, of which four can be downvoted. Every season, in both solo and team Ranked, players must play five placement battles before obtaining their initial rank. However, players' 'hidden' rating, which is used to determine a player's skill for matchmaking purposes, is maintained across seasons and used to determine opponents even during the placement process. The hidden rating is independent of a player's in-game rank, but playing enough games throughout a season will see them converge. The discrepancy between rank and hidden rating can be most obvious in team games, where there is only one single in-game rank across all team sizes, but each team size has its own hidden rating. Therefore, somebody who has obtained the Conqueror rank in 2 vs 2 can switch to 3 vs 3 and be matched against a Gold player due to their 3 vs 3 hidden rating not keeping up with their in-game rank.
Custom[]
Custom games are games with custom conditions created specifically by players. There is no matchmaking system and no associated 'rating'. The lobby is created by a host player, who gets to decide the game settings. These setting options are the same as those described above for Skirmish mode. Additionally, hosts can choose which game server to play on, whether or not to allow observers and allow pausing, and whether or not there is a spectator delay. Hosts can invite specific players to join their lobby, or they can set the lobby privacy to public (it is private by default). Once a game lobby is public, it appears in the list of available custom games, which other players can browse and join, filtering by specific game settings if desired. Games may involve any combination of human and A.I, players. Any mods required for a custom game are automatically downloaded and applied to players who do not have the mod.
Campaign[]
Players play a specific civilization in a set of multiple, related, scripted scenarios, trying to achieve targeted objectives in each one that may be outside the standard victory conditions. The scenarios have an overarching story that ties them together and is told through videos and additional exposition. Campaigns are exclusively single player.
- Main article: Campaign#Age of Empires IV
Proving Grounds[]
The 'Proving Grounds' section contains individual scripted scenarios not directly related to each other. They are divided into the more 'tutorial' like 'Art of War' scenarios, and the more challenging 'Historical Battles' section. Players can earn medals indicating their performance in each scenario.
- Main article: Art of War
- Main article: Historical Battles (Age of Empires IV)