Update 34699 is a patch in Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, released on January 21, 2020.
Game stability[]
- Fixed an issue that would cause the game to crash on start-up.
- Fixed a crash that would affect players in Spectator mode.
- Fixed a rare crash when skipping through the Art of War videos.
- Implemented various other crash fixes.
- Fixed an issue that prevented save files containing non-Unicode text characters from transferring correctly when signing into another device.
- Implemented a warning message when a LAN server is blocked by a firewall.
Performance[]
- Implemented improvements to RAM usage for configurations with dedicated VRAM.
Gameplay[]
- Livestock can now be garrisoned and transported in Transport Ships.
- Animals that can be ordered will no longer run faster than intended when tasked with waypoints.
- Increased the base speed of controllable animals.
- Double-clicking units no longer temporarily selects garrisoned units.
- Fixed an issue where Villagers would sometimes not return to their work after being garrisoned inside a Castle.
- Fixed a rare issue where Petards would fail to deal damage to Gates.
- Fishing Ships will now put more effort into seeking out new fishing spots if their original gathering point is depleted.
- The Guard hotkey for the Bombard Cannon and Mangonel now works as intended.
- Trade units will now prioritize the Market that is furthest away for trading.
- Fixed an issue where Monks would occasionally heal units beyond their intended range.
- The building preview now displays the correct graphic when the cursor is moved beyond the map's edge.
- Multiple Town Centers can now be queued up for construction by holding the Shift key during placement mode.
- Fixed an issue where waypoints would sometimes display in incorrect positions.
- The Anarchy technology now utilizes the correct hotkey.
- Removed the combat abilities from Markets, Monasteries, Archery Ranges, and Stables. (These were previously only available by using gather points.)
- Cancelling the Spies upgrade will now return the full cost rather than only returning 200 gold.
- Cancelling units in a production queue will now return the actual amount of resources initially spent on the unit. (This is a legacy issue from the CD version.)
- Players no longer receive additional score points for killing Dismounted Konniks.
- AI achievements can no longer be unlocked when playing campaign scenarios.
Civilization balance[]
General[]
- The Mayans and Chinese will no longer be granted their bonus starting villagers until a Town Center has been constructed.
- Battle Elephant [Standard & Elite]: Reduced the training time from 28 to 24 seconds.
Burmese[]
Chinese[]
- Can now research the Block Printing technology.
Khmer[]
- Farmers no longer require Mills or Town Centers to drop off food.
Persians[]
- Increased the cost of Archer units after researching the Kamandaran technology from 50 to 60 wood.
Slavs[]
- Ranged infantry units are no longer affected by the Druzhina technology.
Campaigns[]
General[]
- Loading a saved campaign scenario no longer causes certain objects to display the wrong names. (Note that this does not affect old saves.)
- Added the relevant dates and civilizations to each Campaign tooltip.
The Art of War[]
- 'Booming:' Fixed a rare issue where the Imperial Age upgrade could not be unlocked.
Campaign scenarios[]
- Alaric 1: 'The Battle of the Frigidus': The two relics have been moved to more accessible locations.
- Alaric 3: 'The Belly of the Beast': The two enemy cities will now attack more often on moderate and hard difficulties.
- Alaric 4: 'The Giant Falls': The player now starts with extra pavilions.
- Bari 5: 'The Onrushing Tide': A timer has been added to track how much time remains to protect the city during the final part of the scenario.
- Francisco de Almeida 3: 'Ruins of Empires': Fixed an exploit where a player could set their stance to neutral to safely convert hostile villagers without retaliation.
- Francisco de Almeida 5: 'A Son's Blood': Fixed an exploit where the player could win the scenario by constructing a wonder before receiving the objective to do so.
- Francisco de Almeida 5: 'A Son's Blood': Disabled the construction of Transport Ships, Mangonels, or the ability to upgrade to the Imperial Age during the "Truce" part of the scenario.
- Genghis Khan 4: 'The Horde Rides West': Fixed a cliff that could be improperly traversed after removing the surrounding trees.
- Kotyan Khan 5: 'A New Home': The player can no longer research the Redemption technology.
- Le Loi 1: 'The Dai Viet Uprising': The secondary objective to bring the Relic Cart to the Monastery will now activate at the correct time.
- Le Loi 1: 'The Dai Viet Uprising': Player 3 (AI) will no longer transfer all its assets to the player after completing the relic objective.
- Le Loi 5: 'A Three-Pronged Attack': Fixed an issue where the AI would not participate in the scenario as intended.
- Le Loi 6: 'The Final Fortress': Fixed a minor AI issue that would make the scenario harder to complete than intended.
- Pachacuti 3: 'War of Brothers': The player can now build siege units after defeating the Chanca.
- Sundjata 1: 'Hunted': Fixed a crash that could be triggered under certain circumstances during the scenario.
- Sundjata 1: 'Hunted': The scenario will now properly end when Sundjata is killed, as intended.
- Sundjata 2: 'The Sting of the Scorpion': Fixed a crash that could be triggered under certain circumstances during the scenario.
- Sundjata 4: 'Blood on the River Bank': The objective to destroy the enemy will now update properly when completed.
- Tariq ibn Ziyad 5: 'Razzia': Fixed an exploit where computer-controlled opponents would not activate if villagers were acquired early.
- Yodit 1: 'Path of Exile': Increased the initial resources of the player. Gold and stone deposits are also more accessible to miners during the scenario.
- Yodit 1: 'Path of Exile': Enemy opponents now receive less Shotel Warrior reinforcements.
- Yodit 3: 'A Fallen Crown': The yellow team will now resign sooner when conditions are met.
- Yodit 4: 'Broken Stelae': Secondary objectives will now update properly upon completion.
- Yodit 4: 'Broken Stelae': Arab allies now send more ships, and allied tribes now receive additional units.
- Yodit 4: 'Broken Stelae': If a stela is lost after completing the objective to control the stelae, the objective will now reactivate.
Random maps[]
General[]
- Gold and Stone deposits, as well as Relics, will more effectively avoid cliffs during map generation.
- Relics will now avoid forests more effectively during map generation.
- Implemented additional logic to prevent Scouts from spawning in forests.
- Starting sheep will now spawn between 7-8 tiles from the Town Center (was 8-9 tiles).
- Team members' walls that are adjacent to each other will now form a team wall instead of overlapping.
- Changed the way Gates are generated on walled maps to reduce the chance of them being blocked.
- Restored the Relic count to 5 on the following tiny, small, and medium maps. Relics are also more fairly distributed in a 1v1 setting:
- Archipelago
- Black Forest
- Continental
- Fortress
- Highland
- Islands
- Team Islands
- Fixed a bug where trees in some forest types could be deleted by using building foundations. They must now be chopped down before building a structure.
- Dragon forests can now appear on more African-themed maps.
- Implemented various cosmetic updates to terrains used on all maps.
Map Settings[]
- King of the Hill: The monument now generates resources for the controlling player.
- All gold, stone, relics, straggler trees, boar, sheep and fish have been removed from games set to "Infinite" resources.
Map Generation and Layout[]
The secondary gold and stone deposits are now more consistent and more closely resemble their original values on the following maps:
- Acropolis
- Arabia
- Arena
- Baltic
- Black Forest
- Budapest
- Cenotes
- City of Lakes
- Coastal
- Continental
- Fortress
- Ghost Lake
- Hideout
- Highland
- Hill Fort
- Lombardia
- Mediterranean
- Mongolia
- Nomad
- Oasis
- Rivers
- Salt Marsh
- Scandinavia
- Steppe
- Team Islands
- Valley
- Yucatan
Acacia forests have been replaced by palm/dragon forests on the following maps:
- Arabia
- Coastal
- Continental
- Crater Lake
- Fortress
- Gold Rush
- Nomad
- Rivers
- Team Islands
- Valley
Added a Mediterranean season to the following maps:
- Arabia
- Arena
- Archipelago
- Black Forest
- Coastal
- Continental
- Crater Lake
- Gold Rush
- Golden Pit
- Hideout
- Highland
- Hill Fort
- Islands
- Mediterranean
- Megarandom
- Migration
- Nomad
- Oasis
- Rivers
- Team Islands
- Valley
- Enemy Archipelago
- Enemy Islands
- Open Plains
- Swirling River
- The Eye
- Twin Forests
- YingYang
- Iberia
- Italy
- Byzantium
Maps[]
- Acropolis: Added extra gold and stone nodes.
- Acropolis: Adjusted the player starting positions so they all begin at an equal distance to the center of the map.
- Archipelago: Fixed an issue where the starting gold nodes would fail to generate at the start of the map.
- Fortress: Straggler trees no longer appear within the walls.
- Fortress: Adjusted the forests so they at least partially appear within the walls.
- Fortress: Boars will now spawn in two different positions as opposed to one group.
- Fortress: Reduced the distance at which Boars spawn from the Town Center to 16-19 tiles (was 30-35 tiles).
- Fortress: Walls will now consistently spawn 20 tiles from the Town Center. On ludicrous map size, they will spawn at 35 tiles from the Town Center.
- Fortress: Towers will now consistently spawn within 2 tiles of the wall.
- Fortress: Adjusted the generation of houses and other buildings so they do not impede the player.
- Fortress: Improved the way farms are generated so they cleanly surround the Town Center.
- Ghost Lake: Extra sheep spawns have been adjusted to form three groups of two sheep per player. These groups will only appear on the middle lake.
- Golden Pit: Slightly increased the size of the pit in the center of the map.
- Megarandom: Mangrove forests will now only appear on shallows.
- Megarandom: Extra gold and stone deposits have been adjusted to spawn in more balanced locations for players.
- Megarandom: Gold and stone deposits, as well as Relics, now spawn further away from forests.
- Megarandom: Straggler trees will no longer be generated when playing a Deathmatch or Infinite Resources.
- Sandbank: Adjusted the location of gold and stone deposits.
- Sandbank: Improved the placement of additional deer spawns.
- Scandinavia: Adjusted the generation of forests and ice patches to offer easier navigation and access to the water.
- Scandinavia: Resources have been moved closer to players' initial starting positions.
- Team Islands: Fixed a rare issue where gold and stone nodes would fail to generate at the start of the map.
- Team Islands: Removed cliffs from the map.
- Team Islands: Reduced the distance between islands from 22 to 20.
- Yucatan: Teams are now interconnected by shallow terrain in case rivers block passage.
- Yucatan: Adjusted how forests and terrain are generated to provide more open gameplay.
- Wolf Hill: Extra gold and stone deposits now spawn further away from forests.
Random Map Scripting (RMS)[]
- Sudden Death can now be used as an identifier for custom RMS scripts.
- Random maps can now place buildings on terrains without terrain restrictions.
- Random maps now generate the correct Gate types for all Wall types.
- Capture the Relic: Custom Nomad scripts will now allow the player to build a Monastery if the map doesn't start with one.
- Testing Random Map Scripts in the scenario editor now works correctly when teams are set using diplomacy settings.
- A new command avoid_cliff_zone has been added to help prevent objects from appearing too close to cliffs. The distance can be set by using the same format as the avoid_forest_zone command.
- Fixed an issue where setting land_percent to 100 would occasionally fail to generate land on all available tiles. (For example, this would sometimes result in random patches of water on Highland.)
- The command, set_scaling_to_player_number, now works correctly when a map is generated in the scenario editor.
- The command, circle_radius, now supports a secondary value to define the variance of the circle. For example, circle_radius 20 1 would create a circle with radius 20 and variance 1.
- The command, random_map.def, now includes several new beach constants:
- ICYSHORE
- DLC_WETROCKBEACH
- DLC_GRAVELBEACH
- DLC_WETBEACH
- DLC_REEDSBEACH
- MEDITERRANEAN_FOREST
- CYPRESS_TREE
- ITALIAN_PINETREE
- OLIVE_TREE
Lobbies and matchmaking[]
- Fixed an issue where Custom Map pools would always reset to Coastal after starting a new game session.
- Added a password filter to the Lobby Browser.
- The Regicide game mode will no longer remove the 'Victory Condition' dropdown in multiplayer lobbies.
- The 'Starting Resources' setting now works properly when playing Regicide.
- Fixed an issue where the check marks on the loading screen would, on occasion, not update properly.
Graphics[]
- Fixed a rare issue where unit outlines would fail to display behind construction graphics, Walls, and Gates.
- Added smoke visual effects to Gate destruction animations.
- Implemented various bug fixes and updates to art assets.
Audio[]
- Fixed various issues where the voiceover dialog and subtitles did not match in campaign scenarios.
- Fixed the muzzle and sound delay of Organ Guns, Bombard Cannons, and Hand Cannoneers.
- Fixed the sound delay of Hand Cannoneers and Janissaries.
- Fire Arrows shot from Towers will now use the new tower-specific arrow sound, as intended.
- Fire Arrows no longer play the "whoosh" sound effect twice.
AI[]
General[]
- AI-controlled players will now continue to function in multiplayer games if the host has left the game.
- AI-controlled Scouts will now explore the map in custom scenarios.
- Added a localized response to Taunt 31 for AI players.
- Extreme difficulty: AI-controlled Eagle Scouts are now better at avoiding dangers while scouting.
- Extreme difficulty: AI-controlled Scouts will no longer try to continuously steal herdable animals.
- Extreme difficulty: Fixed an issue where the AI would sometimes fail to counter enemy Rams with Villagers.
- Fixed an issue where the AI would prioritize building docks on the opposite side of the map despite starting near a body of water.
- AI-controlled players will now construct fewer docks if they are not planning to construct ships soon thereafter.
- Fixed a rare issue where AI players would flare where it was attacking too often.
- Fixed a rare issue where AI players would not flare where it was being attacked when asking for assistance.
- Fixed an issue where AI players would miscalculate their starting position when playing in a match with imbalanced teams.
- Fixed an issue where, in rare circumstances, starting with an AI (CD) opponent on Extreme difficulty would display an error message.
- Improved the behavior of villager migration to new islands.
- Implemented various improvements to the strategic decision-making capabilities of AI players.
- Implemented minor adjustments to difficulty scaling.
Pathfinding[]
- Improved the behavior of military units when they are surrounding and attacking buildings.
- Groups of units will now correctly make use of command queues.
- Fixed an issue where military units would, on occasion, visually stutter while moving.
- Fixed an issue where Gates would, on occasion, briefly block units during their destruction animation.
- Fixed an issue where AI-controlled units in the campaign would stop attacking while in the Attack Move stance.
- Fixed an issue where units could slide through obstructions if they were too close to fire while in the Stand Ground stance.
- Fixed an issue where units on Stand Ground would stutter after ungarrisoning from a Siege Tower.
- Fixed an issue where Rams would randomly lose interest when attacking a Gate.
- Improved Ram pathfinding when moving to and attacking Gates and Towers.
- Fixed an issue where Villagers would sometimes ignore commands while under attack.
- Fixed an issue where Villagers would occasionally go idle under certain circumstances. This also improves villager gathering behavior in crowded situations.
- The command, sn-maximum-patrol-distance, is now available for scenario designers to utilize the HD chasing behavior which broke the patrolling of individual units.
Scripting[]
Several adjustments have been made to the AI's scripting:
- up-cc-add-resource now also works for non-standard resources.
- up-find-next-player now works correctly.
- unit-type-count-total fact now counts units in queue.
- up-object-type-count-total now counts units in queue.
- up-get-point position-map-size is no longer off by 1.
UI[]
- Updated the minimap to display the correct color for gravel and bogland terrain.
- The Best Civ information on the player profile now shows the best civilization from both single player and multiplayer games.
- Legacy HP colors are now displayed correctly in the UI.
- Placeholder text no longer displays when a player loses connectivity to multiplayer services.
- A Villager's build queue no longer resets when a villager within their group of selected units is killed.
- Fixed a rare issue where the unit command panel would not display properly.
- Fixed an issue which prevented the correct display of allied units inside a building.
- Fixed an issue where the Spectator command panel would not display properly when selecting multiple units.
- Players who have resigned out of a match are now displayed correctly in the spectator UI.
- Fixed a bug where resigned co-op players would see their names replaced by their team name.
- Fixed an issue where hotkeys would continue to work in-game while the "Delete" confirmation window was in focus.
- Fixed a rare issue where multiple UI screens would overlap each other.
- Fixed a rare issue where AI names would not display properly on the loading screen.
- Tech Tree: Unit stats are no longer inconsistent in the civilization tech tree when playing with a non-Dark Age start.
- Tech Tree: Fixed a rare issue where researched unit or technology nodes did not appear correctly.
- Tech Tree: Fixed a rare issue where some nodes did not include their required technologies.
Modding[]
- Fixed a bug where mods could not be downloaded on systems with non-English characters in the local username.
- By default, mods are now sorted by "Popular."
- Mod icons will no longer be reverted to the default icon when updating a mod.
- Added a "Force Update Mod" button.
- Fixed an issue where it custom audio could not be used in the intro or outro slides of a custom campaign.
- Fixed an issue where attempting to override built-in campaign voiceover resulted in no audio at all.
- Unlisted mods now update properly.
Scenario Editor[]
- Loading legacy scenarios in the Editor will now unlock all new content to be placeable in that scenario.
- Placeholder terrain is no longer visible under fog of war in some legacy scenarios.
- Fixed an issue which prevented the ability to navigate text fields in the editor using the arrow keys.
- Triggers: The object "visible" trigger condition now works correctly.
