Age of Empires II HD: Patch 4.3 Released

The long awaited patch 4.3 is out, you can check the changelog below. Feel free to join the discussions on the Steam forums as well and let us know what you think 🙂

Performance:

• Vastly improved overall performance by enabling the renderer to update separately from the World Update.
• Text rendering has been improved and combined into a single pass (down from 5). Virtually all text in the game used to render 5 different passes to create the text outline effect.
• Command inputs now feel responsive when entered quickly. One common example was when the player would select a villager and quickly hit “build” “house” but the house command would not register.
• Upgrade and Build progress bars should appear smoother.
• The game will no longer take up 100% CPU, which will reduce heat buildup and energy consumption, which is mostly a problem with laptops.
• Large native fps improvements under Windows 10 (In some cases, more than 200% frame rate improvements have been experienced).

General:

• Old Saved games and Replays should now load correctly without desyncs.
• Record game is always enabled by default for multiplayer matches.
• Restore Multiplayer game should now function correctly.
• Hotkeys now correctly display and use special characters without corruption or crashing.
• Bright fonts and highlight colors have been toned down.
• Civilization sounds now play correctly at the start of a game and the delay has been removed so the game starts quicker.
• Main Menu music now has new logic to determine which music variation to play depending on which combinations of DLC the player owns.
• Selecting Random Civilizations should now function correctly with minimal duplications.
• Checkboxes in the Multiplayer Lobby now appear correctly when selecting Ready.
• Tech Tree images now correctly display the player color.
• Campaign Difficulty popup text no longer cuts off in localized languages.
• Campaign Difficulty setting is now saved correctly.
• Campaign background images no longer appear corrupted in the dark/shadow areas.
• Players are no longer able to make Player profiles with the same name.
• Players are no longer able to delete their last Profile.
• Game Launcher now functions correctly with Windows 10.
• Game Launcher text should now appear correctly in localized languages.

In Game Improvements:

• Taunt/Command audio now play correctly when selecting them in the Chat menu.
• Taunt/Command text should now display correctly in all localized languages.
• Help Text is no longer being cut off and the “hit point” and “hotkey” information is now being displayed correctly.
• Scrolling now has a small accelerate/decelerate value which is also tunable in the Options menu as Scroll Inertia (If you turn this off, scrolling will behave exactly the same as before).
• Clamped Mouse scrolling now functions correctly and players are able to easily move Windowed screens.
• Objectives menu now contains additional information (like Map Type, Treaty Length and Teams Locked).
• Diplomacy menu now correctly displays radial buttons.
• Players are no longer able to send tribute to enemy players.
• Non-Host players can no longer swap teams in scenarios when that option is disabled.
• Help cursor no longer stays active when using ESC to exit the Diplomacy menu.
• Save menu now displays dataset icons next to each entry.

Scenario Editor:

• Display Instructions message box for the Trigger Effects has been increased to 200 characters (up from 50).
• Display Instructions images no longer appear corrupted.
• Gaia’s default player color is now defaulted to grey.
• Additional Units, Buildings and Heroes now have placement sounds (like Amazon Archers, Sheep, Yurts and William Wallace).
• Starting Age now correctly updates the building visuals when loaded.
• Re-ordering Triggers with Effects should now function correct and maintain the correct Trigger association.
• Play Sound Trigger Effect no longer has “None” as a valid option and the Effect text will remain red until a sound file is selected.
• Teleport Trigger Effect now functions correctly and units no longer try to navigate back to their starting location.
• Lock and Unlock Trigger Effects now function correctly for Gates.
• Change Ownership Trigger Effect should now function correctly for Town Centers.
• Upload Trigger Effect now functions correctly with the Set Location Option.
• Disable Buildings Option now functions correctly with the Forgotten Dataset and disabled buildings are no longer available to build.
• Set Area should now function correctly with Patrol and Attack Move commands.
• Random Start Option should now function correctly with Starting Age, Unit Ownership, Town Center locations and Triggers.
• Opening the Menu while entering text no longer prevents further text entry once the Menu has been closed.
• The Delete Scenario Confirmation popup now correctly displays the file name being deleted.
• Saving a scenario no longer disables scroll wheel functionality in some menus.

Mod Manager:

• Filters have been integrated which include Status/Dataset check boxes and a text field.
• Players can also use the minus (-) key at the start of their text to create a negative filter.
• Shift+Click on Priority Up will move the selected item to the top of the list (or to the bottom if Priority Down was selected).
• Shift+Click on Enable will enable all visible mods based on the current filter setting (or
• Scenario movies and .BINA files should now load correctly.
• Publish Mod Preview Image help text now correctly says to use a .JPG file.
• Movies have been added to the Steam Tag list and recognizes .AVI and .WMV files.
• Clicking in the Mod list when it’s empty no longer crashes the game.

Known Issues:

• Quick Match functionality has temporarily been disabled.
• If fonts disappear after patching from older builds – please reboot your PC to resolve the issue.
• When watching replays, replaying at the fastest speed can lead to an eventual crash due to recent render decoupling changes.