Patch 2.0a is the first patch released for Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings specifically, and as such fixes one of the most noteworthy balancing issues of the Age of Empires II base game. It is the backport of the The Conquerors release patch.
Balance changes[]
Town Center changes - The following changes have been made to the Town Center:
- The resource cost to build a Town Center has been increased by 100 stone.
- The time to build a Town Center has been increased.
- Missile technologies available at the Blacksmith (Fletching, Bodkin Arrow, and Bracer) no longer increase the range of the Town Center.
- For the Teutons, the Town Center no longer has increased range.
- For the Britons, the 50% decrease in the cost to build a Town Center now applies only to wood, and this reduction in wood cost is not available until the Castle Age.
Enhancements[]
- Single-Player Performance Improvements - The performance of single-player campaign games has been improved, especially on lower-end computers.
- Limited Pauses - The total number of pauses available to each player in a multiplayer game is now limited. The total number of pauses remaining is displayed each time the game is paused.
- Display Name of Out of Sync Player - In a multiplayer game with three or more players, if a player goes out of sync, that player's name is displayed in the out of sync message on all computers.
- Stability Improvements[note 1] - A number of crashes and multiplayer out of sync bugs have been fixed, resulting in improved game stability.
- Multiplayer Restore From Zone Bug[note 1] - The ability to save and restore a disconnected or out of sync multiplayer game on the Zone has been improved.
- Computer Player Bugs[note 1] - The behavior of the computer player in multiplayer games has been improved.
- Foundation Outline Bug[note 1] - Building foundations now have outlines, so you can now click on them when they are behind trees or other objects.
Bug fixes[]
- Computer Player Resigning Bug - The computer player will no longer resign after a few minutes of play (previously available in the AI Update).
- Fish Trap Bug - You can no longer build a Fish Trap on top of an existing fish resource.
- Fishing Ship Bug - You can no longer use a Fishing Ship to construct buildings other than a Fish Trap.
- Flare and Waypoint Bug - The game no longer crashes when you set a flare or waypoint location at the very Southern-most point on the map.
- Cooperative Farming Bug - When you take over a Farm foundation built by an ally, you can no longer extract more than the standard amount of food from that Farm.
- Farming on Forest Bug - You can no longer build a Farm or Wall on top of a partially cut section of forest.
- Unit Ignoring Orders Bug - Units no longer ignore orders under some circumstances.
- Trebuchet Firing Bug - Trebuchets no longer miss targets that are on a different elevation.
- Single-Player Campaign After Regicide Bug - A single-player game will no longer automatically end immediately after a multiplayer game of Regicide was played.
- Scenario Editor Bugs - A number of Scenario Editor bugs have been fixed.
Trivia[]
- The changelog for this patch is still present in the files of every version of Age of Empires II from this patch onward, including the Definitive Edition. It can be found as the file 'Readme_a.rtf' in the docs folder (within the folder for each language).
- All changes were part of The Conquerors itself, which released prior to the patch.
