Age of Empires 4 Reveals 2022 Roadmap

8 min read

Relic Entertainment reveals a roadmap for Age of Empires 4 and shares details on the new features coming in the first half of 2022.

While there was a lot of skepticism leading up to Age of Empires 4’s release, it launched to a favorable reception from both critics and fans. Many consider Age of Empires 4 to be one of the best multiplayer games of 2021 and it looks like the community will remain active for years to come.

The development team, consisting of Relic Entertainment and World's Edge, releases regular updates for Age of Empires 4 that generally fix bugs and implement balance changes. Despite the praise for the core gameplay, Age of Empires 4 was missing some features on launch, mostly consisting of elements fans expect from a fully-priced release. Relic Entertainment had confirmed that it will add Ranked Ladders to Age of Empires 4 in the spring, and the developer has now revealed a roadmap for the first half of 2022.

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The post states that the spring update for Age of Empires 4 will now be called Season 1, and it will finally add a content editor, in-house mods, and Ranked Ladder for 1v1 matches. Ranked Ladder in Age of Empires 4 will consist of 6 divisions with 3 tiers each, and fans will be able to earn exclusive rewards at the end of the season. Season 1 also comes with several improvements to the hotkey system, and quality-of-life features such as a Global Build Queue and full post-match map reveal. The section on Season 1 then confirms that more balance changes are on the way for Abbasid Dynasty, Chinese, and Holy Roman Empire civilizations.

The post then shares details on Season 2, which will come with fully remappable inputs and the option to pick a player’s color in matches. Many Age of Empires 4 players want more control over which maps are available in ranked matches, and Season 2 will finally add a Map Vote System. Some civilizations have certain advantages on specific maps, and players would sometimes quit matches before the start of the game depending upon the map type selected. Additionally, Relic Entertainment will remove the Boulder Bay, Confluence, and Black Forest maps from the 1v1 Quick Match pool in an upcoming update.

Finally, the post lists some other features that are being considered for the future, including waypoint indicators and cheats. While many of these features should have been there at launch, it’s great to see detailed information on the future of Age of Empires 4. As these updates are only for the first half of 2022, fans can hope that the developers continue to add new features throughout the year.

Age of Empires 4 is now available on PC.

MORE: Age Of Empires 4: Every Civilization, Ranked From Worst To Best

Source: Age of Empires