Update 13.690 is a patch in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition - The African Royals, released on March 15, 2022.
This patch also reset the patch numbering system by adding a "major version number", which is 13 here (and 12 before this in the Definitive Edition). This practice was later followed by Age of Empires IV with patch 5.1.148 and Age of Empires: Definitive Edition with update 100.2.31845.0, although patch numbering system was reset for the latter with update 28529 also.
Game[]
Stability and performance[]
- Fixed a rare Out of Sync, caused by using the Hausa Tsetse Sabotage card on enemy buildings while they're producing units.
- Memory consumption reduced for low graphics settings.
Graphics[]
- Reduced the radius of the Whale's swimming animation, making it easier to identify the location of its fishing spot.
Audio[]
- Lakota and Haudenosaunee military unit voice-overs updated.
UI[]
- Eagle Runner Knights are now properly tagged as "Ranged Shock Infantry".
- Command panel buttons that are disabled because of both build limit restrictions and because the player doesn't have enough resources now correctly display a red overlay (at build limit) instead of a dark overlay (can't afford).
- Fixed an issue where social menus could no longer be opened under rare circumstances.
- Fixed a rare issue where DLC Home Cities could show duplicated.
- Various Localization fixes across all languages.
- In the "Fall of the Hausa" Historical Battle the text "You are Victorious!" and "Town Centers Destroyed" will now be displayed in the correct language when a language other than English is selected.
- Fixed website links in the news panel.
- Fixed various inaccuracies in the tech tree.
- Fixed various text truncating issues.
- Fixed missing map previews for Ozarks and Plymouth map.
Hotkeys[]
- Blockhouses now have keybinds available for Chinese banner armies/units on the Legacy keybind set.
- Village hotkey group now have keybinds available for Water Buffaloes on the Legacy keybind set.
Gameplay[]
- Various ships are no longer harder to select individually when damaged (mostly affected Fune, Tekkousen, Ottoman Galleys and Fuchuans).
- Ships acquired by African civilizations through Euro/Native Alliances now receive automatic upgrades when Aging up.
- United States: Steamers can now train Hussar.
- Mexicans: Haciendas are now affected by the following Native upgrades: Berber Ghorfas (Berbers), Sudanese Hakura System (Sudanese), Red Sea Wagon (Sudanese)
- Spanish: "Team Archaic Soldier Training" card now affects Mexican Insurgentes.
- Ethiopians: "Balambaras" card now correctly boosts the Fealty Aura of the Ras.
- Fixed a rare issue where Tribal Marketplaces would not always disappear when the nearby mine was exhausted.
- German Explorer no longer loses certain abilities after sending the "Castrametation" card.
Campaign[]
- Historical Battles: The Battle of the Three Kings: All docks can now train Galleys as intended.
Civilization balance[]
General[]
- Zouave: Hitpoints increased to 360 (from 320), Ranged resistance reduced to 40% (from 50%), Attack damage improved to 38 (from 35), Cost reduced to 300c (from 350), No longer benefits from the Counter Infantry Rifling upgrade, Population cost increased to 3 (from 2)
- Peruvian Legion: Grenade attack range reduced to 14 (from 16); now inflicts 0.5x to Artillery (from 1x); area damage reduced to 2 (from 3)
- Sudanese Dervish: Cost increased to 50f 45w (from 50f 40w)
- Kanuri Guard: Ranged armor reduced to 30% (from 40)
- Landsknecht: Population cost increased to 3 (from 2)
- Added colors to all European standard unit card icons for better recognizability
Aztecs[]
- Wall of Skulls: Now grants 1 Skull Knight for each 3 the player has lost so far (changed from each 2 lost)
- Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli Support: Skull Knight speed improvement reduced to +0.25 (from 0.5)
British[]
- Logistician (Age 1 → Age 2): Effect updated to "1 Arsenal Wagon and a free Arsenal technology"
- Manor House: Cost reverted to 135 (from 140)
- Starting units: Now begin with 200f 300w (previously 300f 300w)
- [NEW] INF Rule, Britannia (IV): "Ships a mighty Battleship! This card costs 1000 Coin the next time you send it."
- [NEW] Greenwich Time (I): "Ships 1 Trading Post Wagon. Each of your Trading Posts improve Politician and Technology research speed by 20%" (Note: Trading Post research speed improvement works like other auras - scales from current rates/stats, not base)
- [NEW] Rangers (IV): "Longbowmen are fully replaced with Rangers at the Barracks, Homecity, and on the map. Rangers use a rifle instead of a bow to counter Heavy Infantry more effectively, but have less range." (Note: All Longbowmen upgrades also improve Rangers)
- [NEW] Siege Archery (IV): "Enables Longbowmen to siege buildings from a long-range with fire arrows, which inflict burning damage over time." (Note: has 22 range and the same DPS as the ordinary siege attack; additionally, each arrow inflicts 1 burning dmg per second for 10 seconds)
- [NEW] INF 8 Longbowmen (III): "Simple shipment of Longbowmen" (Note: this card replaces the current Fortress Age shipment of 8 Longbowmen that can be shipped one time)
- Glorious Revolution (II): With the arrival of the Ranger unit, and to encourage new ways to play, the techs have been updated:
- Thin Red Line (free, I): Now affects all Infantry (previously just Heavy Infantry)
- Blackwatch (1000f, III): Grants 8 Highlanders (no change)
- [NEW] Roger's Rangers (800f, II): Added "Ships 5 Rangers and replaces your current Longbowmen with them, too. Longbowmen shipments now grant Rangers instead" (Note: does not allow Rangers to be trained)
- Virginia Company (I): Now reduces Manor House wood cost by exactly -45 wood (previously a percentage reduction of -35%, equal to 47.25). Now also reduces Manor House Build XP bounties in-line with the cost reduction; does not change Kill XP bounty
- Yeomen (III): Now also increases Longbowmen bonus damage against Heavy Infantry by +0.25x (Moved from the Imperial Longbowmen upgrade which no longer grants this bonus).
Chinese[]
- Consulate German Relations: Banner Army food cost reduction improvement reduced to 15% (from 20%)
- Koxinga: Cost increased to 1000c (from 500c); Rate of Fire improvement reduced to 20% (from 25%).
Ethiopians[]
- Ras: Speed reduced to 5.75 (from 6.75); increases by +1 upon reaching the Commerce Age; Damage multiplier against Guardians reduced to 3x (from 3.25)
Hausa[]
- Lifidi Knight: Ranged armor reduced to 20% (from 30%); cost increased to 110f, 110c (from 90f, 110c); train time adjusted accordingly
- Emir: Speed reduced to 5.75 (from 6.75); increases by +1 upon reaching the Commerce Age; Damage multiplier against Guardians reduced to 3x (from 3.25)
- Rumfa's Riders (II): Now ships 4 Lifidi (down from 5)
- Hand Cavalry Hitpoints (II): Moved to the Fortress Age
- Durbar Parade (III): Moved to the Industrial Age
Ottomans[]
- Improved Buildings (I): Moved to the Industrial Age (from Exploration)
Swedes[]
- Settler build limit reduced to 90 (from 99)
- Starting units: Now begin with 300f 300w (previously 200f 300w)
Japanese[]
- Shrine (I): Hitpoints reduced to 1300 (from 1400)
Mexicans[]
- 11 Insurgentes (II): reduced to 10
- Colegio de San Nicolas (Michoacán, II): Unit line of sight improvement reduced to +4 (from +8); No longer affects walls.
Spanish[]
- War Dog: Fortress Age hitpoint improvement reduced to 55% (from 80%); Industrial Age hitpoint improvement increased to 65% (from 40%) – Note: attack improvements unchanged
- Spanish Gold (III): Now delivers crates of 350c (down from 360c)
United States[]
- New Jersey Seaports (New Jersey, IV): Now improves the amount of resources shipped by 'infinite' crate cards by +400 (down from +900); no change for crate cards which may be sent once.
Random maps[]
Map updates[]
- Standard Maps Set: Added Arabia, removed Yukon
- Team Maps Set: Added Arabia and Yukon
Map changes[]
- General:
- Made several "under-the-hood" changes to resource distribution on several maps to ensure fairer access to early-game resources.
- Central Plain: Improved spawn consistency of hunts and mines in 1v1 spawns.
- Colorado: Fixed an issue where sometimes one or more players could fail to spawn in team games.
- Darfur: Adjusted the trade route length and trade post socket positions for a fairer "first pass" of the trade travois.
- Florida: Fixed an issue that sometimes caused a trade post socket not to spawn along the trade route.
- Lake Victoria: Removed the starting fishing boats and extra 5 population in 1v1 spawns. Fixed an issue where treasures could spawn within a native settlement. Fixed a rare issue that could cause the starting hunt from spawning.
- Malaysia: Added an additional starting hunt near players' bases.
- Manchuria: Improved distribution of map resources. Added a trade route socket along the trade route in 1v1 spawns – there will now always be 4 trade posts in a 1v1.
- Sahel: Added an additional hunt per player in a 1v1. Adjusted the terrain to be less "duney".
- Savanna: Fixed an issue where treasures could spawn within a native settlement.
- Siwa Oasis: Now correctly loads when selecting the "Large Map" option.
- Tassili: Fixed an issue causing some coin mines not to spawn.
- Tripolitania: Adjusted the dense perimeter trees from spawning too closely to a player's starting resources.
- Unknown: Added some additional biomes and terrain features. Added caches of unknown amounts of resources to discover. Adjusted how closely teammates spawn so they aren't too crowded on certain generations nor too close to the enemy on other map seeds. Improved resource distribution around the map. Fixed an issue that could result in a player's bonus starting wagon from spawning.
- Yellow River: Fixed an issue where upgrading the northern trade route would instead upgrade the southern trade route. Now both trade routes are upgraded separately as expected.
- Yukon: Fixed an issue that could cause a player's starting hunt not to spawn. Thinned some of the forests to provide more space for units to maneuver.
Lobbies and matchmaking[]
- Custom AI mods are now supported in Multiplayer.
- Casual lobby settings are no longer retained when starting a custom ranked game.
- Selecting "team 4" will now properly be displayed to other players in the lobby.
AI[]
A wide variety of AI improvements to make the AI stronger and more versatile.
- Lowered the handicap on Hardest from +20% to +15%. (meaning the AI cheats 5% less on Hardest)
- Lowered the handicap on Extreme from +40% to +30%. (meaning the AI cheats 10% on Extreme)
- Completely remade what cards the AI puts inside its deck, the decks should be more competitive now while still having lots of variety.
- Adjusted how the AI determines which cards to send during the game.
- Adjusted Native civilizations' age up Council Members.
- Adjusted which Politicians European civilizations age up with, excluded age ups that grant Fort Wagons when the AI isn't allowed to build Forts.
- The AI can now only revolt if it has more than 60% of its allowed population, to prevent revolts that make very little sense.
- Excluded the American Texas and Florida federal state age up options when the AI isn't allowed to build Forts.
- Excluded the Mexican Puebla and Veracruz federal state age up options when the AI isn't allowed to build Forts.
- Prevented the AI from resigning while treaty is still active.
- The AI will now only start constructing/upgrading Towers 5 minutes before treaty ends.
- The AI will now only start constructing an Arsenal 10 minutes before treaty ends.
- The AI will now construct a second TC on hard+ if it's missing too many Villagers.
- Fixed Japanese Shrines being limited to areas they should actually be excluded from, this will result in more Shrines being built on the open map next to hunt.
- Starting Bandit Catamarans will now used to fish from the beginning of the game instead of starting from the Commerce Age.
- Slowed down the construction of a Consulate to 5 minutes after reaching Commerce Age or reaching the Fortress Age.
- The AI can now attack with their war ships.
- The AI will now start training war ships 5 minutes from treaty ending instead of not taking it into consideration.
- Hard+ AI will now build 2 Docks instead of 1 in the late game.
- The AI can now also build a Dock on maps that have no water spawn flag but do have fish.
- African AI can now get their war ship upgrades in the Port.
- Adjusted African Levy training logic to no longer assume that Levy Gunners are locked behind the Fortress Age since they're available already in the Commerce Age.
- European Levy can now be used from every Town Center the AI owns instead of only the main Town Center.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the AI from using the Consulate Levy.
- Changed when the AI makes extra houses in the Exploration age to be more competitive.
- When a game is set to high, ultra, or infinite starting resources the AI will perform a Deathmatch like start to be competitive.
- Implemented all technologies that are deemed suitable to get from all Consulate relations.
- The AI will now place their Shrines / Torps inside of the base instead of next to resources when the game is on infinite starting resources (to save walking time).
- AI will no longer try to gather when on infinite starting resources.
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Lakota from using their New Ways card correctly.
- Fixed a but that could cause AI Settlers trying to build a Fort.
- Enable selling food and wood for gold when AI is out of gold. Same when out of food, AI will buy food using gold. This should also help with AI sometimes getting stuck in Commerce Age.
- Fix for a bug in researching economy upgrades.
- Bumping Settler count in Commerce Age from 25 to 35 for Dutch on Hard difficulty and higher.
- Fixed an issue stopping Ottomans from building a Mosque.
- Fixed an issue of creating too many African field build plans.
- AI will avoid attacking when focused on aging up.
- Reduced the time it takes before the AI prioritizes aging up.
- Fix for Haudenosaunee and Lakota unable to build more tribal marketplaces when there are still gold mines nearby.
- Fix for trying to gather resources without workable targets.
- If an AI calls for help in their main base other AI can now also respond to this call for help.
- Added missing calls for AI voice lines when the player collects a treasure.
- Fixed the implementation of 4 AI voice lines that get called when Monopoly victory is less than 1 minute away.
- Added 12 civilization specific AI voice lines that get triggered depending on score differences.
- The AI will now always send an intro voice line instead of only when certain condition were met.
- Fixed an issue that would cause everybody to be recognized as first to age up to the Commerce age and receiving those AI chats.
- Adjusted the starting cattle selling behavior for Hausa and Ethiopia to be more competitive.
