The Age of Empires 4 Roadmap has been revealed, highlighting what's to come in the next Age of Empires 4 update in Winter 2021 including balance changes, UGC Creation Tools, and more.
Age of Empires 4 was first announced all the way back in 2017 and it finally arrived back in October of this year, debuting the Holy Roman Empire and The Rus as playable civilizations. It turned out to be a pretty great game overall; now, we know what we can look forward to in the coming weeks and months.
What's in the Age of Empires 4 Roadmap?
With Patch 7879 already released, the focus of the Age of Empires 4 Roadmap is on the future -- starting with the next Age of Empires 4 update.
The Age of Empires 4 Winter 2021 Update promises to deliver the following items:
- Over 100+ balance changes
- In-game player scores
- Bug & Performance fixes
- Chinese Dynasty UI changes
- Mini-map adjustments
Following the release of the Winter 2021 update, the next major update will be in Spring 2022. This will include UGC Creation Tools, the addition of the "Patrol" feature, and the usual balance updaters, bug fixes, and performance improvements.
Finally, there's the far future: Age of Empires 4 Seasons (and other improvements, natch) will arrive sometime after that. However, that's not all that's coming -- the devs are also looking into several concerns raised by players. Several of these issues center on features that were available in previous Age of Empires games; a Global Build Queue, waypoint indicators, taunts, and cheats are being explored by the devs.
Mind, missing legacy features aren't the only concern; some players have complained that the AI is a bit too tough in some cases and too easy in others, so it looks like it will be rebalanced at a future date. Quality-of-life improvements are being explored, too, such as improvements to the game's hotkey system and a better way to provide "meaningful stats at a glance" on unit stat cards.
For now, Age of Empires 4 remains a pretty solid real-time strategy game and it looks like it's well worth playing; you can buy Age of Empires 4 for PC via its official website starting at $59.99 or your regional equivalent; alternatively, you can get access to it with an Xbox Game Pass membership. You can look forward to the next major patch arriving in Winter 2021.
What do you think of the Age of Empires 4 Roadmap? Do you think the game is as good as previous releases in the franchise? Let us know in the comments below!