Patch 4.8b (Open Beta - Updated Dec 8, 2016)

NEW UPDATE: Dec 8, 2016 -- Still Patch 4.8b

Fixed desync involving animals evacuating building foundations when construction starts.



Fixed desync when a MP save/chapter save fails.

IGNORE_REPLAY_DESYNC: When watching replays, desyncs are ignored. There are some false positives causing replays to end before their time. We needed something like this to analyze desyncs, and it doesn't hurt to release it. But note that when dat files changes, replays can diverge significantly. Really meant for "same version" replays.



FASTREPLAY: You can watch replays like a Benny Hill episode when you select the fastest replay speed. Useful when you are, say... trying to get to the end of a replay to analyze a desync :)

NEW UPDATE: Dec 6, 2016 -- Still Patch 4.8b

NEW UPDATE: Nov 30, 2016 -- Still Patch 4.8b

UPDATED: Open Beta Patch Notes – Patch 4.8b

UPDATED: Open Beta Patch Notes – Patch 4.8a

Open Beta Patch Notes - Patch 4.8

In Steam, right click on Age of Empires II: HD (while the game is not running).

Select Properties.



Select Properties. Select the BETAS tab.



From the drop down, select Open Beta – Patch 4.8.



Exit and restart Steam to ensure the update installs correctly.



To go back to the Live Build, select None in the BETAS tab dropdown.

MP Restore:

MP games can now be saved correctly and restored.



File Transfer now functions correctly in the MP lobby.



A green loading bar now displays progress for all players.



MP saves, custom scenarios and custom maps now transfer correctly.



Please note that old MP restore games from 4.7 or earlier will no longer load or even be visible in your list of restore games when loading.

Performance:

Having Vsync turned on in the game options will result in smoother scrolling.

Disable Vsync in the options menu.



Disable Render 3D Water in the options menu.



Use the chat command “setmaxfps 30”. You can always change this on the fly as needed. But a constant 30 fps is generally better than a game with a fluctuating frame rate.



We also recommend disabling scroll inertia in your options when vsync is turned off and this can occasionally result in jumpy scrolling.

If you have battery power concerns (running a laptop under battery power).



Ensure your setmaxfps is set to 60 or enable Vsync to ensure optimal usage.



To view your FPS rate press F11 twice in game.



To change your max FPS open the in game chat box and type “setmaxfps 60” (replacing 60 with the desired value). When you press enter you will see a chat notification. You will also need to disable Vsync in order to see FPS rates higher than 60. You can also type “getfps” to report your current settings. You can change this at any time.

Improvements and Optimizations:

Scrolling improvements have been made.



Software limiter has been added.



FPS counter has been added (press F11 twice in game).



FPS limiter has been added and the max FPS is defaulted to 60 FPS when Vsync is disabled.

Default Hardware Vertex Processing has been adjusted.



Terrain lighting and tile updates have been optimized.



Terrain rendering improvements have been made to the tile system to make them render more efficiently (this is most visible in LudiKris maps sizes).



Terrain rendering improvements have been to be more efficient in deciding what tiles to render (making L.



3D elements have been optimized.

Game now utilizes one CPU core more efficiently and requires less power consumption (specifically on laptops).



Scrolling has been improved and is now smoother in more situations.



Network events now respond faster.

Game now continues to render to the window when it loses focus.



Sound output will continue to shut off when the window loses focus.

Audio data now has a smaller buffer and loads more frequently.



Audio no longer loads when the music slider is turned down completely.



Audio was responsible for occasional hitches during gameplay.

Desyncs:

Command packets now include incremented IDs.



Commands packets are now re-ordered (based on incremented IDs) when received by the other players to ensure all players are aligned.



Desync logs have been improved to provide additional information.



We fixed a major late game desync where commands were rarely being processed out of order. This typically happened during lengthy performance or lag spikes. Usually when these lag spikes occurred, human nature would tell everyone to issue lots of orders. We figure this single desync was responsible for over 90% of all known desyncs.



Fixed a “first frame” desync in special modes involving AI players such as Capture the Relic, Regicide and a few other modes that spawned special objects outside of the random map scripts.



Fixed frequent replay desync. Old replays from patch 4.7 or earlier will almost certainly desync due to dat file changes.



New in 4.8b: If the spectator is the host and the game desyncs, it will properly exit.

Lobby Browser will display a notification when a user joins a lobby and their game version or data is different. Due to this new functionality the version number has been removed from the lobby.



There is now a progress bar that is visible during file transfers.



File transfer now can support multiple files, such as real world maps that contain both a scenario and a random map script.

Bug Fixes:

A rare crash was addressed when rapidly refreshing and joining multiple lobbies.



Lobby co-op flow has been improved and player civs are now updated correctly.



Lobby Location no longer includes DLC maps in Full Random.



Civ jingles now play for all players when loading into gameplay (not just the host).



In game score list now display AI leader names.



In game flares now display in the sender’s player colour.



In game help text (like town center upgrades) should now display correctly.



Farms no longer appear or sound depleted when they are not.



Save Chapter (F9) and Save Game (F12) now have a small delay between clicks to prevent performance spikes and crashes when the game is saving.



Vote dialog now times out disconnected players after 20 seconds (down from 30). This is to ensure the remaining players receive the correct packet updates when a player disconnects.



Beach terrain now correctly updates when other textures are placed over it.



Various minor translation and localization issues have been addressed.

The structure of the main-screen.json file has been altered. In order to prevent existing main menu mods from crashing, the file has been renamed to main-menu.json. Any existing mods will cease to work until they are ported to the new structure and republished.



Publishing/Updating more than 1 mod in a row is now possible.

Elite War Wagon has been updated (fixed armour Class 28 'Cavalry Archers' and Class 0 for all civs except Gaia)



Base Genitours have been updated (fixed armour Class 28 'Cavalry Archers')



Base Caravels have been updated (fixed armour Class 19 'Unique Units')



Camels have been updated (fixed attack vs. Class 30 'HD Camels' and is vs. Class 0 for all civs except Gaia)



Eagles have been updated (fixed attack vs. Class 30 'HD Camels')



Eastern and Nordic Swordsmen have been updated (fixed attack vs. Class 21 'Standard Buildings' and is vs. Class 0 for all civs except Gaia)



Archer, Crossbowman, Arbalest have been updated (fixed attack Class 13 'Stone Defense' which was previously only set for Gaia)



Camel Archers now have anti-spearmen bonus (0 attack against spearmen), so Parthian Tactics can properly affect Camel Archers of other civs, like Saracen Camel archers in the first scenario of Berber campaign.





Kamayuk now do +20 damage to Elephant type units.



Trade Cogs now turn instantly when returning from a dock.



Trade Carts now have a smaller collision radius (less blockages on trade routes).



Yasama now fires 1 arrow less (down from 3 to 2).



Genitours are now created faster when playing as the Aztecs.



Kasbah is longer applied to the player researching it.



Fortified Walls take the same time to build as Stone Walls (both 10s now, previously 11s/10s).



Certain Gate orientations no longer construct faster than others (487&488).



Ethiopian Skirmishers no longer have an increased fire rate (only Foot Archers are affected).





Korean "Faster Fortification" bonus now properly affects Fortified Walls.



Persians no longer randomly use Saracen villager voices.



Indian Camel Armor bonus values have been removed (it incorrectly increased their now-defunct ship armor).



Pavise no longer incorrectly applies to Skirmishers.



Condottiero is now properly affected by the Malian armor bonus.



Chieftains now properly affects Berserk damage vs Camels.



Organ Gun is now properly affected by the Turkish team bonus.



Mayan Team bonus now affects all gate types & orientations.

Arrowslits costs 250F 250W (increased from 150F 150W).



Arrowslits removed from the following civilizations: Ethiopians, Goths, Huns, Indians, Magyars, Malians, Mayans, Mongols, Persians, Portuguese and Slavs.



Arrowslits moved to Imperial Age.



Effect from Arrowslits reduced from 2/4/6 to 1/2/3.



ESkirm upgrade costs 200W 100G (reduced from 250W 160G).



Husbandry costs 150F (reduced from 250F), research time reduced from 50s to 40s.



Fire ships are now affected by Ballistics.



Siege Tower costs 200W 160G (reduced from 300W 160G).



Acacia Trees are now worth 150W (increased from 100W).



Demolition Raft speed -0.1 (reduced from 1.6 to 1.5).



Fire Galley -5 HP (reduced from 100 to 95).





Aztecs: Military creation bonus (+16.5%) doesn’t apply to Monks.



Aztecs: Get Demolition Raft.





Berbers: Cavalry discount staggered to -15/20% in Castle/Imperial.



Berbers: Receive Ring Archer Armor.



Berbers: Non-elite Genitours -1 attack, +1 range.





Byzantines: Greek Fire upgrade costs 250F 300G (instead of 250F 450G).





Ethiopians: Upgraded scorpion projectile has 0.3 size.



Ethiopians: Elite) Shotel anti-building bonus reduced to 0/1 (down from 2/3).





Franks: Throwing Axeman (non-elite and elite) +10 HP.





Huns: (Elite) Tarkans +1 pierce armor.





Incas: Kamayuks +0.05 speed (same base speed as Samurais and Throwing Axemen).





Italians: Gunpowder discount increased to -20% (was -15%).



Italians: Fishing Ships cost -25W instead of having +2 LoS.



Italians: Condottiero creation time increased from 11s to 13s.





Japanese: Get Treadmill Crane.





Malians: Lose Halberdier.



Malians: Wood bonus no longer affects farms.



Malians: Elite Gbeto attack reduced from 14 to 13.





Mongols: Elite Mangudai frame delay increased from 0 to 5.



Mongols: Elite Mangudai receive their original anti-siege bonus.





Portuguese: Feitoria now cost 250g, 250s (changed from 250g, 250w).



Portuguese: Feitoria production rates are now 0.8f, 0.8w, 0.45g, 0.25s (from 0.7f, 0.7w, 0.45g, 0.45s).



Portuguese: Arquebus now has a smaller effect on gunpowder units (Ballistics is still enabled but projectile speed modifier reduced by 75%).





Saracens: Elite Mameluke missile delay increased to 5 (up from 0).





Slavs: Boyar speed increased from 1.35 to 1.4.





Spanish: Team bonus for trade is 25% more gold instead of 33%.





Teutons: Teutonic Knights speed increased to 0.7 (up from 0.65).





Turks: Gold miners work 20% faster (up from 15%).





Viking: Chieftains affect all infantry units.

Campaign Fixes:

Sforza 1:Aqueducts can no longer be completed before the Luigeusi quest.





Sforza 3:Sabotage missions now correctly affect events that occur later in the scenario.



Sforza 3:Triggers in the second and third sections should now function correctly.



Sforza 3:Some off-grid objects have been removed to improve pathfinding.



Sforza 3:AI no longer resigns randomly.



Sforza 3:AI now has enough resources to attack in the third section.





Bari 3: Norman enemies should now be gray in color.





Dracula 4: Player colors have been updated to use the correct color.





Dracula 5: Player colors have been updated to use the correct color.





Prithviraj 1: Opponents no longer walk around incorrectly.





Prithviraj 2: Additional gold mines have been added near the beginning of the scenario.



Prithviraj 2: Scenario can now be won when the purple player is destroyed after the others.





Prithviraj 3: Additional gold and stone mines have been added near the beginning of the scenario.



Prithviraj 3: Some off-grid objects have been removed to improve pathfinding.



Prithviraj 3: Completing the Imperial Camel side quest now also researches the Heavy Camel technology.



Prithviraj 3: Messages no longer trigger incorrectly after Prithviraj has been discovered.



Prithviraj 3: Villagers no longer appear to roam the map incorrectly.





Prithviraj 4: Player colors have been updated to use the correct color.

Some off-grid objects have been removed to improve pathfinding.





Some off-grid objects have been removed to improve pathfinding. El Dorado 2: Completing the collect sail side quest no longer causes a sudden defeat.



El Dorado 2: Missing text string for player 6 has been added.

Tariq ibn Ziyad 2: Merida is no longer able to build a wonder after being defeated.



Tariq ibn Ziyad 2: Guadalajara now resigns more appropriately.





Sundjata3: Djenne will now activate when under attack.





Sundjata 4: Gbetos now spawn when the player has less than 15 Gbetos and 150 total populations.





Sundjita 5: Red player now resigns more appropriately.



Sundjita 5: Overall difficulty has been decreased.





Yodit 2: AI should appear less passive and attack the player.



Yodit 2: Player colors have been updated to use the correct color.



Yodit 2: Player 8 has been removed from the scenario.





Yodit 3: When Dagnajan reaches the pass the player is now correctly defeated.



Yodit 3: Cyan AI difficulty has been decreased.



Yodit 3: Missing ending dialogue has been added.





Yodit 4: Red player now has access to additional wood.



Yodit 4: Conquering all tribes now behaves as intended.



Yodit 4: Stelae should now provide the correct resources.



Yodit 4: Stelae should now only change ownership to the enemy AI if it has units next to it.





Yodit 5: Stelae triggers have been updated.



Yodit 5: Gadajan now correctly displays a custom hero.

Known Issues:

Save and exit while paused may drop players while in game.



Save and exit after a player has dropped may corrupt the Multiplayer Restore save.



Multiplayer scenario games will default to the scenario’s pre-set teams rather than the lobby ones.



Spectator View Lock Toggle does not function as intended.



Menu, lobby and player colours are being tuned.



Sometimes Team badges are not being displayed in the postgame achievement screen.



Some campaign AI may not behave as intended (currently the None AI option is incorrectly loading the Original AI, resulting in them moving more than intended).



In game button press delay message is only being shown for Save Chapter.



Difficulty level is not functioning correctly and cannot be set in the Editor.



Colour Tags have no effect in Display Instructions Trigger in the Editor.



Various campaign issues are being addressed.



Known late game desync involving at least 1 AI player with a population cap of 500. If you want to play with AI, keep the population cap lower. We don't know the exact minimum, but we believe 200 population cap is safe. 400 could be on the edge of being safe.



In certain situations, the AI could cripple performance.

Please discuss Patch 4.8b issues here.Thank you for your participation in the Open Beta!We have addressed two more desyncs:Also... new commandline (launch options) arguments:Please restart Steam to get the latest build and let us know what you think.Thanks for your support.We appreciate your patience and participation in the Open Beta!Thanks to your efforts, we’ve been able to track down two additional desyncs. This new update addresses issues that occur during the vote dialogue screen and during the initial game start. Please restart Steam to get the latest build and let us know what you think.Additional logging has also been added to continue to hunt down the last known "acceleration" desync. So please upload any desyncs you encounter.We hope to push an official update in the near future, thank you for your support.This new update includes a fix for thedesync where we now ensure all players receive each other’s commands prior to advancing the turn. We have also included additional log details to help us track down thedesync. Please give this new update a try as we monitor both the desync logs and forum posts.Thank you for participating in the Open Beta! Based on your efforts we have identified a few potential issues which may be causing desyncs. Patch 4.8b includes improved stat tracking to help identify these areas to and aid the development team in tracking them down.We have also included campaign tuning for both the Forgotten and African Kingdom campaigns (see below for specific fixes).Thank you for your support with this Open Beta! We have been monitoring the forums and analyzing our statistics and we have identified an additional AI related desync. Patch 4.8a includes a fix to this desync by fixing a bug that allowed the AI to spend way too much time processing itself. Previously the AI would exceed the command buffer and thus cause a desync.We look forward to hearing from you - see you online! See bottom of post for updated known issues.We’ve being working on this Open Beta for a long time and we are all very excited to get these updates into the hands of the community! This build includes the long-awaited return of MP restore, performance improvements, desync fixes, bug fixes and balance tuning. Significant changes were made “under the hood” to achieve these improvements so we need your participation to broaden our Multiplayer coverage. This build is unable to cross-play with the current live build so please opt into this Open Beta by following the steps below. Here is the discussion thread for all of your feedback and we are looking forward to working with the community to make ongoing improvements! We can’t wait to hear what you think!Thank you for your on going support! We are looking forward to hearing from you as we look to the future.We have upgraded the MP restore system and improved the underlying lobby architecture to work with the current save / load structure and player profile systems.We have done extensive profiling and made significant improvements to the rendering system. Most machines (including minimum spec) have shown steady improvements, however, some configurations with integrated graphics cards may not see as significant FPS improvements.If you can comfortably maintain 60 FPS or greater:If you are unable to maintain 60 FPS:Additional notes:Vsync:Rendering Optimization:Timing and Scheduling Changes:Game Focus:Mp3 Streamer Optimization:Thank you for your support in uploading your desync logs! These logs are vital tools in identifying and fixing these challenging issues. These logs helped narrow down a re-occurring desync regarding commands being processed out of order. This desync has been addressed in this Open Beta and appears to account for a wide variety of issues.Game Setup Screen & LobbyGeneral:Workshop:Units/Techs:Game Balance:These were introduced in Patch 4.8b