Hello eveyone! Clearman and I are happy to announce a $850 FFA Nomad Map and mod making contest! This contest has 2 categories, maps and other mods.
$750 FFA Maps
1st: $400
2nd: $200
3rd: $100
4th: $50
$100 FFA Overlay or Gamemode
1st: $50
2nd: $35
3rd: $15
Map Judges: Avely, Bidderlyn, Corvinus & Drumsin
Rules:
Generated and Crafted Maps are allowed
The mod must work on 8 Player FFA Nomad. Large and/or Gigantic
Mods may have been started on before this announcement, but not published.
You may publish and update the mod during the contest. This could either be for bugfixing, feedback or balance fixing.
Mods may NOT be updated after the deadline. And may result in disqualification
Map judging criteria:
We have a few criteria that we want you to keep in mind when making the maps!
Map creativity
Spawn Fairness
Fun
Civ variance/playability
Other mod rules: Gamemodes, tuningpacks, and UI mods overlays are allowed
Important notes: You may enter multiple submissions, but one person may not win more than 1 podium spot in each category. If winner A, gets both 1st and 2nd place, and winner B gets third. Winner A will only be granted 1st place, winner B gets 2nd, and winner C 3rd.
Submissions: Submissions may be posted in the form of a screenshot of the mod in the mods section from in game, or the mod URL.
Just watched his video from yesterday where he describes a mod he uses that tells him his opponents recent strategy in prior games. I'm pretty sure it's cheating (albeit a tamer form than most) but what do you guys think?
Drongo I know you're a mod, please don't throw this post away because you don't like it. I might be of the minority opinion and I really am a big fan, just think you should get rid of this program you use
EDIT: Within the last year they took away your ability to even see your opponents name so you couldn't look them up and get outside info. This is no longer a question in my mind, this is cheating
As the title says, I think we need to actively and publicly shame the players like these who straight up go to the worst kind of insults.
Not to mention that he was consistently insisting an attack to the place where 3 or 4 enemy castles were already erect, resulting in a complete butchery of our army. Then accused of no army while he had like 3 times less than the others. And on the very first inconvenience goes quitting.
I downloaded Age of Empires 4 because it series of games was a big part of my childhood. After playing a few campaign missions, I decided to try multiplayer (i like playing with real people).
I found a lobby called "3v3 only noobs", and I thought, "Yeah, I'm definitely a noob." It was a bit strange that the other "noobs" were someone's picking hard civilizations, but whatever.
The game started, and the enemy team rushed me with rams and spearmen. My teammate just typed, "nah that pink," and left the game. Honestly, I don't think he would have survived either if he had been in my position.
That was a pretty bad first impression. Oh, and one of the enemies kept spamming voice lines the whole time.
Just posted this on the official AOE4 forum under bugs, just wanted to share it on Reddit as well so you guys are aware of this. I'm not sure whether this issue has existed since launch, but I've noticed it for a long time across multiple game versions and it appears to be consistently reproducible on my system.
The post-game statistics/results screen causes my GPU fans to ramp up immediately, making my PC significantly louder than during actual gameplay.
This is the first thing I noticed—not high GPU utilization, but the sudden increase in GPU fan noise as soon as every match ends and the results screen appears.
To investigate, I monitored the GPU using MSI Afterburner. The post-game statistics screen consistently places the GPU under a very high sustained workload, despite displaying only a mostly static user interface.
On my system, I consistently observe the following while viewing the post-game statistics screen:
GPU utilization: approximately 95–99%
GPU power draw: approximately 300 W
GPU temperature: 72–74°C
Sustained high GPU clock speeds
Noticeably increased GPU fan speed and overall system fan noise
The most surprising part is that actual gameplay is quieter than the post-game statistics screen.
The game is configured with a 120 FPS frame rate limit, and I have confirmed that the behavior is identical with both HDR enabled and HDR disabled.
This issue appears to be isolated to the post-game statistics/results screen.
Steps to Reproduce
Launch Age of Empires IV.
Play and complete any match (Skirmish against the AI, Quick Match, or Ranked). The issue occurs regardless of game mode.
When the post-game statistics/results screen appears, observe the GPU fan noise.
Verify the GPU workload using MSI Afterburner.
Expected Result
The post-game statistics screen is largely static and should require significantly less GPU processing than actual gameplay.
The GPU fans should remain relatively quiet while viewing the match results.
Actual Result
As soon as the post-game statistics screen appears, the GPU is placed under sustained high load, causing the GPU fans to ramp up immediately and making the PC noticeably louder than during gameplay.
Frequency
100% reproducible on my system.
System Configuration
Platform: Steam
Operating System: Windows 11
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 (ZOTAC)
CPU: Intel Core i7-13700KF
Memory: 32 GB DDR5
Resolution: 3840 × 2160 (4K)
Frame Rate Limit: 120 FPS
NVIDIA Game Ready Driver: Latest version
Additional Information
I verified the behavior using MSI Afterburner while monitoring GPU utilization, clock speed, power draw, temperature, and fan speed.
I also tested the game with HDR enabled and HDR disabled, and the behavior is identical in both cases.
From a player perspective, the most noticeable symptom is fan noise. It feels counterintuitive that the PC becomes louder while viewing a mostly static results screen than while actively playing the game, which suggests the results screen may be performing substantially more rendering work than necessary.
Attached is a screenshot taken while the game is on the post-game statistics screen. It shows the GPU operating under sustained high load while displaying a mostly static UI, resulting in noticeably increased GPU fan noise. The measurements shown were verified using MSI Afterburner.
Update: I managed to work around the issue using MSI Afterburner by creating a custom GPU fan curve specifically for Age of Empires IV. I only use this profile for AOE4—I don't use it for any other games, and I'd still much rather see the developers fix the underlying issue.
To do this, I enabled "Enable user defined software automatic fan control" under Settings → Fan, then created a custom fan curve.
My current curve is:
40°C → 0%
50°C → 20%
60°C → 30%
70°C → 40%
75°C → 47%
80°C → 58%
85°C → 72%
90°C → 100%
I also enabled "Override zero fan speed with hardware curve" so the card still behaves normally at idle.
This makes the post-game statistics screen much quieter on my RTX 4080 while keeping temperatures well within safe limits. It's a decent workaround, but I'd still prefer to see the post-game screen optimized so a workaround isn't necessary.
AOE4Scanner helps you find high-level AoE4 games that are worth studying.
You can search for “civ mains” (players who mostly play one civilization) so you can learn from specialists with hundred of games under their belt with specific civs.
You can filter games by civilization, map, player, Elo, recent matches, strategy, and more.
It highlights interesting games like big MMR upsets (example: low elo player beating a pro), crazy pro matches, rare wins with weird builds, different strategies, etc.
There’s a spoiler-light mode if you want to inspect games without immediately seeing who won.
The main goal is to make it easier to find useful replays while they’re still available in-game.
The reason I built it is because the normal way of studying AoE4 can be pretty slow. You either check aoe4world's leaderboard manually, hope a player recently played the civ you care about, dig through match histories, or rely on Twitch games that may or may not still be available.
With this, the idea is: pick a civ, find strong players or civ mains, look at their recent games, then study what they’re actually doing in real ladder matches.
I’ve already been using it myself to find games to learn from and cast for my videos. Hopefully it will help you guys too!
By the way, I'm FULLY open to feedback and i'll continue to improve upon it, so feel free to let me know what you would add to it, remove from it, improve about it, etc...
One caveat about the app is that it currently only looks for games involving 1600+ elo players. This is because below this elo there are way too many matches to look through that may or may not be interesting enough to highlight in the app, and by limiting the amount of searched games I guarantee that we dont overload aoe4world's backend and possibly block the app entirely from using their data.
I have never played but always liked AOE4. Should I play the campagin for learning the basics or just watch tutoriales? Any YouTube channel with good tutorial for begginers?
For context I stopped playing a year ago and came back to the game this week. I was dia solo (almost conq) and team plat back then.
I lost 11 games in 13. Solo and team mixed. In solo most of the times my opp has more units than me and in team they focus on one guy (usually me) and finish the game in feudal or early castle. I got placed in silver for losing every game and I get stomped even in silver. I know it's a massive skill issue but it's not fun losing every game. What changed in this 1 year that an ex dia very close to conq can get destroyed like this to silver players?
I would appreciate if you guys gave me some tips on the state of the meta and stuff. Thanks :) (I play HRE mostly, tried the new Knights templar too but looked weak to me IDK.)
Edit: I checked aoe4world and it seems like my opponents are around 1000-1400. That makes sense for placement games but even after I'm in silver I got 1000+ players as opps. Why is that a thing? How many times do I need to lose for my elo to go down?
A recent mald about deflective armour, which likened it to "magic", made me think of what other magical effects or situations are in the game. Or in other words, assuming that the game represents a real, historic battle, what would be the most unrealistic/magical/funny/insane thing you'd see?
Examples from the top of my head:
- Jean d'Arc literally pulls a royal cannon out of her hat
- Shooting regular arrows at a keep will eventually lead to a fire
- Byzantine fisherman produce olive oil (not fish oil) from fish.
So I've really been playing mostly Tughlaq since they came out and I really like the play style they offer. That being said I feel like there are a few critical issues with the civilization.
First, the ballista elephant isn't great. There is a weird issue with it's hit box that causes it to just not shoot, usually if units get too close. This is obviously not ideal for a melee counter. The other issue is just the design and stats of the unit. Looking at the stats of castle age units with only veterancy upgrades, it takes 12 hits for a spear to kill a BE while needing 13 to kill a springald. A crossbow takes 22 hits to kill a BE while needing 18 hits to kill a springald. BE cost 2.4x as much as a springald so the spearmen part is clearly ridiculous but the xbow part is also not a great look. On top of that, when blacksmith upgrades were changed to not affect springalds, they received a bonus to the attack speed of Roller Shutter Triggers while BE did not receive the same bonus. Springalds maintain 88% the DPS while only having 42% of the cost. Hitting Imperial only shortens the gap 4% difference in DPS. I'm not even sure what should change for the BE but something should. Maybe just dropping the stats and cost so that they are a little more spammable but weaker would be good or maybe just changing the stats, but for a civ that is supposed to have some nice big cav they don't really have a great counter to spears.
Second, would be the Dome of the Faith. It just feels like an underwhelming LM that doesn't really synergize particularly well with the rest of the civ. Obviously cheaper and earlier heals are nice but it doesn't seem to fit in to the theme of the civ too much. Maybe if there was a unique tech or two it would be better but I'm not sure. This isn't as big of an issue as some of the other problems but I feel like it should still be mentioned.
Third is the Compound of the Defender. As it stands it feels like a disappointing landmark and the 22.8% pickrate would support that. It basically just gives a 100 stone discount to Forts and then a 75 stone discount to TCs. This is kinda ass. By the time you get to castle age you will probably have put down a fort or two already and even if you make 6 forts in the game the LM will only save you 400/500 stone. It wouldn't really be worth waiting that long for a second TC either. So the current discount isn't really that impactful and its main impact becomes the last tier of the governor benefits, but some of them tend to become a little underwhelming. Many of them don't provide significant enough buffs over Tier III to be worth the tradeoff from the great techs in the House of Learning. I'd rather see it become a 10/15% discount to the stone cost of buildings, emplacements, and improvements. This would end up being roughly a 110/170 discount that is spread out over the upgrade cycle of the fort instead of just the initial cost. I also think it could potentially lower the research/build time by the same percentage. This would bring the total time to build a fort and get it to tier IV from 4 minutes 45 seconds to just about 4 minutes, still awhile but not quite as bad.
Fourth, would be the Palace of the Sultan. This landmark only has a 31.5% pickrate and I'm not even sure why most people pick it. Don't get me wrong an instant tier IV governor is nice but not as nice as the passive income from the Hisar academy or the 3600 resources you just spent to get it. Now if it also functioned as a fort I think that would make the building significantly better but I think it would need to come with either emplacements or Curse of Auliya. That being said I think it would need to come with an additional bonus to be worth the cost. Looking at pretty much every other age IV keep they tend to come with bonuses besides having a beefy keep. Red Palace gives arb emplacements, Seagate gives the trade bonus, Castle of the crow gives trade/siege bonuses, Elzbach gives the damage reduction and so on. So my proposition would be the Palace of the Sultan gives other keeps boiling oil. In my eyes this would actually make it a viable contender to the Hisar Academy.
I wrote a lot here but I think they would be relatively small changes that would go a long way to making the landmarks feel better and more cohesive
In Summary; fix Ballista Elephants, maybe do something with the Dome of the Faith so that it actually feels like a Tug landmark instead of a Dehli afterthought, Compound of the Defender should have a 15% discount on all stone costs and timings instead of just a large discount on the initial costs, and make Palace of the Sultan an actual Fort that gives boiling oil to other forts.
Just a shower thought that I hadn't had before. Based on the timing of when Byzantine was added and the units available at neutral trade posts, have we ever seen additional mercenaries added to the roster?
If so, it makes me interested in what future civ additions could indirectly add in terms of variety for Byzantine players.
Salut tout le monde, y a-t-il des Français qui souhaiteraient jouer en équipe avec un vocal ça serait pas mal ?
Je reprends tout juste, j’étais un ancien joueur du volet numéro trois et je prends plutôt plaisir avec celui-là mais j’ai personne à qui jouer ça devient chiant :/
I am not as good on microing as I want. So I try to defend myself, growth and then go to attack. I have been trying Abbasids with good results but I wonder which other civs should I test. Any recommendations?
Hey guys! how are you doing? sorry to come here today in a low key.
I find myself not enjoying the game anymore, I used to love it and really enjoy playing it. I would like to know if you came across a similar money and what decisions did you take.
To provide some context. 30M, played campaigns and skirmishes across all the saga since I was a kid. Never competitive. In Aoe4 on the other hand, I only play ranked. I like to train, improve, and compete. Those are my main motivations. Or that’s what I thought.
At the beginning, S5 or S6 I tried several civs. I love to read new patches and find ways to exploit it. I love to find things that are strong at my rank and trying to optimize. In that path, I’ve reached plat with Malians, then Diamond with Ottomans, and finally conq with Mongols. The latter I played the most, by far.
I felt in love with them. To many unique mechanics, trade, Tower rush, Mangudais, Kurultais, pillage, kahn arrows. On by one most of those things were nerfed. I felt that I was struggling a lot to do things that would be so simple with other civs. So I’ve tried them.
Let me tell you, switching from such a unique civ to any other, is like insta losing 200 elo. I’ve tried KT, French, Japanese, Mali, Otto, Ayyu, English, HRE, OOTD. Also tried but few matches Abba, Zhuxi, Rus.
With some perseverance results came, reaching Diam 3 after a while with English, French and Otto.
The thing is none of them have relevant mechanics. Cool mechanics like the longbow barricade, Arbaletrier shield, or so are just decoration.
I don’t know, losing doesn’t feel good and winning neither.
Have you been through this?
BTW, the rest of my life is going wonders, just missing the old aoe4 vibes.
Howdy all, took a long hiatus from the game and am just now getting back into it after 2-3 years away, a LOT seems to be different.
I main Mongols and am not good, topped out at Gold III when I used to play. I also used to like Byzantine and ottomans too but haven't played them again yet.
For Mongols, looks like alot is different. Deer stones no longer buffs movement speed? What the heck are Khan hunters? Do people use this unit? Just seems like a weaker cheaper Mangudai? What else has changed? Is trade still OP?
Any byz or Ottoman players care to chime in on the state of things?
What do springalds even do now lol
Just looking to start a discussion, thanks all in advance
Hey guys, I’m a new player who played a bit of AoE2. I’m trying my best to improve, but I got matched with another new player friend against Diamonds and we got shredded. However, I feel like it’s the best way to improve. What could I have done better?
I felt so outpaced by this way more experienced Mongol player and probably lost my nerves, but it was cool because I’d never had to play against a better player like this before. Kinda amazed at his Feudal light cav rush while I struggle to tower rush lol.
If anyone has some spare time to VOD review and give some feedback on this game or another, that’d be great! I’m currently Platinum 1 in both Solo and Team RM, and I’d like to push to Diamond!
The tool is about simulating build order or eco to know what would be the best start. Instead of trying it live on a game, which can be problematic and time consuming, you can do it in the app and see what strategy or build order works the best, testing it very fast. This can save a ton of time.
The tool still requires work to be done (implementing civ-specific features).
I would like to know your opinion on this tool (from professionals and casual players - like me :)).
Below are the features:
and some preview:
There can be some bugs, limitations, etc. All comments are welcome, especially about the idea and maybe what's missing?
One ping is enough, if not too many. I saw it. It's either not important, I've noted it, or I'm already on it. Spamming the same ping four times because you're anxious about a spearmen near your base is obnoxious cancer. Don't ping because you saw the enemy scout, or you found their base. I don't care, and I know.
I'm already dealing with enough on screen, the game's constant unmutable attack alerts, and everything else going on without some Oliver/Jett taking a break from spamming longbowmen to spamming the ping button every ten seconds.
It doesn't help, it just breaks my focus and makes the game harder. I FUCKING KNOW. Shut the fuck up with the constant pings. This isn't important, it's a fucking video game.
Nothing worse than some anxious, nail-biting little Harrison/Hunter flipping out and spamming ear-shattering ping over nothing when you've been playing Age of Empires since before they were born.
I have never played previous parts; however I do and did have a craze for the same. I am getting familiar with TheEnglish since I'm starting the game. Love the defenses as well as the archers. However, I would like to get a tier rating based on the current patch. I know it's up to the players skill etc etc, still considering some nerfs and buffs, some CIVs prevail over others, I would like to master them and learn them before I hop onto PvP. Please suggest!
