Patch 5.2a (Open Beta)

Open Beta 5.2a – Update 3: Additional Improvements

Altered the calculations involving network speed granularity to address the issue players were seeing where the game felt too fast or too slow.



Loading into multiple treaty mode games no longer crashes.



Units now behave correctly when unloaded from transport ships (in replays).



Line of sight circles should now correctly follow units (in rare cases they would be misaligned)

Open Beta 5.2a – Update 2: Additional Improvements

Hotfix on Feb 20th

Fixed crash for monk tooltip when playing with Russian language.

Improvements:

Additional network speed improvements (best case is 17% faster)



In game ping/lag/turtle icons have been updated to appear in the correct situations:

Yellow ping circle appears for players above 200ms ping.

Red ping circle appears for players above 400ms ping. Used to be 700ms.

Turtle icon shows up for each player that cannot maintain 90% of the simulation frame rate. Previously only showed up for the slowest player.

Villagers should no longer stop and attack wolves (ordering a move command will now take priority so users can move villagers if desired)



Additional AI improvements when pathing around walls and gates

Patch Notes – Open Beta 5.2

Improved Network Speeds:

Removed the added network delay on game start



Lowered the minimum command delay to allow max performance on faster machines



Improved the throttling system to allow for faster network speeds (where applicable).

Community Focused Fixes:

Saving during a game should no longer cause a desync when watching the replay



Full Random should no longer select maps the player does not own



Rise of Rajas main menu music should now randomly be selected



Player units should no longer get stuck in forests or be able to pass through walls



AI should attack correctly and no longer freeze during a game



AI improvements when sn-enable-patrol-attack set to 1:

Soldiers should no longer get stuck in animation loops

Soldiers should now attack the wonder correctly

Villagers should now respond to weak units attacking

Villagers should now attack towers correctly inside town-size



Additional Bug Fixes:

Spectators should no longer crash when opening the tech tree in the game lobby



AI Huns housing bonus should now function correctly with the original dataset



Le Loi 5 AI should now attack correctly



Bayinnaung 1 cinematics should now appear correctly

Balance Improvements:

Malay cheaper fishing ship cost removed



Malay Battle elephants 25% cheaper (rather than 20%)



Malay age up bonus decreased from 100% to 80%



Elite Rattan Archers +1 bonus attack vs infantry removed



Elite Camel Archers +1 bonus attack vs infantry removed



Elite Karambit warrior pierce armor reduced from 2 to 1



Arquebus speed modifier on bombard cannons and bombard towers removed



Harbors reload time increased from 2.5s to 3s



Harbors HP reduced from 2200 to 2000 (docks are 1800)



Elite Arambai search radius increased by 2 (so they target easier)



Manipur Cavalry effect now split evenly over armor classes 21 and 11 (so researching masonry negates 50% of the effect)

How to access the Beta Branch:

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



Select Properties.



Select the BETAS tab.



From the drop down, select Open Beta – Patch 5.2.



Exit and restart Steam to ensure the update installs correctly.

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



Thank you for your ongoing support! Based on your feedback we have one additional improvement to the network speed that we would like you to try out, as well as 3 additional bug fixes. Please let us know what you think and hopefully we’ll be ready to update the live branch next week.Feedback from 5.2 has been positive so far and we have identified an additional area for optimization based on the community’s observations around late game performance. We have included this improvement, along with a few bug fixes, into this small update. So far our internal testing has shown improvement but we look forward to hearing what you think before we transition this build to the live branch!As we look to the future of Age2 we wanted to provide a brief overview of what we have in store. Moving forward we will continue the Open Beta Program and give you, the community, an opportunity to provide feedback on a regular basis. We want to maintain focus on community issues and additional bug fixes. In patch 5.3 we will be tackling a variety of campaign issues, addressing bugs from previous expansions as well as custom campaigns. Currently we expect our future patches to focus on the following: patch 5.4 will focus on custom scenario bugs; patch 5.5 will look into ongoing AI improvements; and patch 5.6 will look at the multiplayer lobby issues. Based on your ongoing feedback we will continue to make adjustments as we monitor the forums.Again, thank you for your support as we work together and keep moving forward!This open beta has significant improvements to the network speed system. Our testing has shown a noticeable improvement on faster connections and we encourage everyone to take a look at this build and let us know what you think!We have also included some bug fixes and balance improvements based on your feedback. Moving forward we will continue to monitor the forums and work towards addressing the issues that are important to you.