Age of Mythology: Retold – Update 19.12998

Welcome heroes to another exciting update for Age of Mythology: Retold, featuring a wide range of gameplay improvements, balance adjustments across multiple civilizations, and continued refinements to stability and performance. This patch also brings updates to visuals, audio, UI, and hotkeys, along with quality-of-life fixes, campaign improvements, and ongoing support for modding and tools. As always, take a moment to explore the full notes before jumping back into the game and experiencing the latest changes firsthand!

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

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Thanks again to our amazing community members, all of whom have helped to make Age of Mythology: Retold a success thus far!

—The Age of Mythology Team

◆Update 19.12998◆

Developer Note: Reminder that Replays are not compatible between patch updates. Replays are not compatible because the simulation logic changes in ways that prevent them from running synchronously with their original behavior.

Recently, the last of the announced monthly Pantheon Pin-up challenges was completed. Players have regularly asked whether there is a way to access the months they missed. You can now unlock all 12 Pantheon Pin-up portraits by owning the Ultimate Fan Pack!

Stability & Performance

• Minor general improvements to stability.

• Minor general improvements to stability.

• Small performance and memory gains from a swap to use DDS textures for the UI. Memory usage for UI textures has been reduced by up to 70% in some situations as a result of these changes.

• Minor performance improvements from changes to Popcorn VFX simulation settings. Fixed the configuration of all Aztec VFX to use the correct simulation types and corrected some others that were set to always simulate when they only required simulation while visible on screen.

• Fixed a crash that could occur during loading saved games in some situations.

• Fixed a crash that could occur while using the Drain Resurrection unit action if the target ceases to exist before a search for target update begins.

• Fixed a crash that could occur when joining a multiplayer game.

• Fixed a crash that could occur while selecting a unit that has other units devoted to it, if the devoted units cease to exist.

• Fixed a crash that could occur if the Cage Unit power type referenced a VFXArea ProtoUnit with a shorter lifespan than the power’s active time.

• Fixed an Out-of-Sync and possible crash that could occur when using the Auto Devotion command.

  • Playing multiplayer games where a player used it, or trying to load a saved game / replay where it was used, would have resulted in non-deterministic or unstable behaviors.

  • The number of units that are set for Auto Devotion is now correctly serialized in all situations.

• Fixed a crash that could occur while saving the KB unit list in some rare situations.

• Fixed a crash that could occur while loading a saved game with an unknown power type (e.g., from an unloaded mod).

• Fixed a crash and instability that could occur while watching some replays. (Applied in a minor hotfix patch between main patches).

• Fixed a crash that could occur in some situations while observing replays with Pre-Queued commands. (Applied in a minor hotfix patch between main patches).

Localization

• Updates to some translations to improve translation quality.

Graphics

• Added a unique variation of the Shrine for the Aztecs! Players with the Blood and Bones Pack can view it in an alternate, bloodier appearance! You can toggle the visual for all Blood and Bones Pack units in the DLC tab using the “Show Unique Unit Visuals” setting.

• Fixed bugs with trees, where they could become stuck mid-fall if you took a worker off the tree while the physics was still settling.

• Fixed a situation where the TO THE MOON cheat could leave trees levitating in view if Physics stopped for them suddenly or if you took all workers off the tree while the tree was still updating movement.

• The Purge God Power’s overhead VFX now disappears instantly after impact to reduce visual clutter.

• Fixed animation clipping issues for Tlamanih’s cloth during their attack, bored, build, death, flail, and idle animations.

• Fixed all the Prop Vine assets to show with the correct normals. Vines will now appear correctly everywhere they can be found on buildings.

• New VFX added for the Burnt Water technology.

• Fixed Eagle Warrior’s projectiles to change when technologies are researched (Flint/Jade/Obsidian Weapons, Medium/Heavy/Champion Nobles Hut Soldiers).

• Added new VFX for Eitri’s (Thor’s Hammer) hand attack.

• Added a new small glow VFX for Eitri’s hammer swap animation.

• Adjusted flaming VFX for Aztec weapons (when empowered with the Norse Flaming Weapons God Power).

• Fixed props clipping through the model during Itzcoatl’s revive animation.

• Scaled down the size of rock_small_a.

• Fixed the floating position of rock_small_a in the Peach Blossom Spring unit’s model to be on the ground.

• Fixed several animation clipping issues for Teixiptla Huitzilopochtli.

• Fixed animation clipping for the Earth Monster God Power.

• Fixed an animation issue with the Kraken where it was not properly picking up units.

• Fixed animation clipping issues for Huitzilopochtli’s attack, birth, death, and walk animations.

• Fixed a floating broken column in the underworld_passage_z composite model that was causing an odd floating broken column to appear in Obsidian Mirror Scenario 07 during a cinematic.

• Added team color masks to Aztec animals so that they can show player colors while player-controlled, e.g., for Animals of Set.

• Removed an invalid model reference in the fishing_ship_aztec_baseline composite model.

• Fixed some minor data art issues for the Arrow Canoe, Atlatl Siege Canoe, Aztec Fishing Ship, Tepoztli Canoe, Aztec Transport Ship, Popocatepetl, Popocatepetl Snakeless, Iolas, and Icarus.

• The Earth Monster will now display water VFX instead of dirt when it emerges from the water.

• Adjusted the Animals of Set VFX positions for the Aztec animal variations.

• Updated some explosion VFX to work on both land and water.

• Fixed a minor bug in Tlacaelel’s idle animation pose.

• Units that were building something when Lullaby was cast on them will now swap to an Idle animation instead of continuing to play their build animation.

• Fixed minor feet sliding animation issues for the Otontin in their attack, bored, death, and idle animations.

Audio

Updates to how God Power sounds behave as they move in and out of an on-screen state.

• God Powers now track all existence sounds. Previously, only the looping sounds were controlled by the God Powers once they were initially triggered.

• Minor cleanup to improve the naming and consistency for sound files and sound events.

• Fixed the Sacred Gate God Power sounds to play while on-screen.

• Fixed the Lullaby SFX not fading in/out when it went on/off screen.

• Fixed an issue with a missing howl sound for the Fenris Wolf Brood.

• Fei Beasts now play their birth sound as a positional sound.

• Fixed God Powers using the fadeIn attribute, failing to play sounds. This fix applies to the Blazing Prairie and Tempest God Powers.

• Updated the Tempest God Power to play a large impact sound for each large impact. Previously, this was only played once after a specified delay.

• Updated Starfall’s existence sound to play as a looping sound.

• Fixed Starfall’s SFX not fading in/out when it goes on/off-screen.

• Tempest, Lightning Storm, and Meteor now strike SFX positionally.

• Removed looping and positional attributes from the Blazing Prairie active soundset.

• Adjusted the length of the Goshinboku birth sound event to match the content length.

• Kusanagi’s birth sound now plays as a positional sound.

• Lightning Strike for the Bolt God Power now plays positionally.

• Tailwind now plays its SFX if on screen.

• Removed some loop regions from the Dragon Typhoon SFX.

• Fixed Ame-no-Ukihashi and Well of Urd powers referencing non-existent soundsets.

• Removed the birth sound from the Underworld Passage unit, as this is now handled through the power.

Hotkeys

New Hotkeys have been added!

• Select all Melee Infantry and On-Screen variants.

• Select all Melee Cavalry and On-Screen variants.

• Select all Ranged Cavalry and On-Screen variants.

The following fixes have also been applied for Hotkeys:

• Fixed a bug where the Pre-Queue Heavy Cavalry, Champion Cavalry, Medium Archers, and Heavy Archers in the Military Barracks were named incorrectly. These bindings can now be rebound as expected.

• Fixed a bug where the Pre-Queue Heavy and Champion Cavalry in the Baolei were named incorrectly. These bindings can now be rebound as expected.

• Select All and Select All Onscreen Hotkeys will no longer select Warrior Priests that are actively performing Bloodletting.

Developer Note: This change ensures you don’t accidentally pull Warrior Priests away from their tasked job.

UI

• DDS format textures are now used for most images shown in the UI.

• Minor updates to the quality of some UI images that appeared slightly blurry or incorrect in some situations.

• Fixed a bug that prevented access to the top bar tabs when entering Ranked in some situations. This would occur only the first time you entered Ranked and would prevent you from accessing features such as the Tech Tree. You can now access intended areas while playing in Ranked modes in all situations.

• The following changes have been made to the Compendium:

  • All Aztec Myth units now have scientific names and size details.

  • Other minor updates to improve the text for the Aztec Myth units.

  • Fixed missing Axolotl Mutant history text.

  • Calpulli variations now show the base Calpulli history text when viewed.

  • Lykaon Wolf now shows the Lykaon history text.

  • TlacanexquimilliCG (the corrupted ground version) and TlacanexquimilliSPC now show the shared Tlacanexquimilli history text.

  • Fixed missing Arrow Canoe history text.

  • Fixed a typo in Heracles’s history text.

  • Fixed text truncation that could occur while browsing due to the vertical scroll bar covering some characters.

  • Arrow Ships, Close Combat Ships, and Siege Ships pages in the Compendium now list and link to Japanese and Aztec units.

  • Fixed a bug that had caused the Close Combat Ships to not appear in the Compendium.

  • The Infantry page in the Compendium now lists and links to Aztec units.

  • The Heroes page now lists and links to the Warrior Priest for the Aztecs.

  • Fixed a bug that prevented the Ranged Units page from showing.

  • Updated the Ranged Units page to list and link to Aztec ranged units.

  • Updated the Cavalry page to list and link to Aztec Cavalry. Also fixed an error where the Yumi Horse Archer’s link referenced the Turma unit.

  • Updated the Siege Weapons page to list and link to Aztec siege units.

  • Fixed a bug that was preventing Berry Bush, Dwarven Mine, and Gold Mine from appearing as entries in the Compendium alongside learning about resources.

  • Fixed a bug that caused the Fallen Heroes information page not to show and for links not to link to it correctly. This page is visible under Gameplay Concepts and is visible as a link on the Heroes page.

• Fixed the Capybara’s tooltip string to match other herdable type animals.

• The cheat version of the Cabybara now shows the default Capybara’s history information when viewed.

• Demeter’s Minor Gods (Pan, Hestia, and Persephone) now show unique messages when aging up instead of only showing the age and god as a generic message.

• Fixed “Healing Descent” showing up as the action name for units that have a Delayed Transform type action as their main action.

  • Fixed Qiongqi’s action to show “Land” instead of “Healing Descent” while flying.

  • Zhuque now has a unique protoaction name to ensure it doesn’t assign the “Healing Descent” text to all Delayed Transform actions.

• Quetzalcoatl’s Snake now has a new icon matching the unit. Previously, the portrait used a small version of Quetzalcoatl’s Snake.

• Fixed a loading screen tip that incorrectly named Coyote Warriors as Coyote Runners.

• Fixed a bug that caused the difficulty to not show in the top right during some campaign missions when cycling displays with F11. This issue occurred when AIs in the scenario did not match a single difficulty (e.g., when an ally was set to a different difficulty than the enemy). Players wishing to speed run the campaigns while showing the difficulty for recordings, or those who have forgotten which difficulty they are playing on, can now see it.

• Restored the original background image for Obsidian Mirror Scenario 05’s loading screen.

• Fixed the loading screen image for Obsidian Mirror Scenario 04 to ensure it matches the main menu view of the map.

• The Community Event carousel button will no longer show if there is no active event.

• The Community tab is now hidden when there are no active or upcoming events.

• Tunkuluchu’s text no longer incorrectly mentions that it increases Tonalli generation.

• Increased the limit on PC for the FPS from 144 to 240 to support players who have capable machines and want to view the game at a higher frame rate. Note that changing this setting will not increase frame rates unless you were already reaching the limit.

• Fixed the missing “Send Livestock” button for the Calpulli buildings.

• Hovering over the game version in the Settings menu on PC will now show a tooltip explaining that you can click it to copy the text to the clipboard. Right-clicking will now also copy the full string instead of just part of the numbers.

• Fixed missing Spectator / Replay UI assets when viewing matches with a Demeter player while using Controller.

• Fixed missing Specator / Replay UI assets when viewing matches with either a Demeter or Amaterasu player.

• Icons shown while aging up in the build queue will now show the alternate icons based on your player preference. E.g., any of the visuals from the Legacy Portraits pack or other rewards from the Ultimate Fan Pack / Community Events.

• Cleaned up some asset references for the UI that are not used to ensure only things that are used will be loaded through the shared definitions.

• New Fire Ceremony now shows a notification saying it has been activated and shows a tooltip while hovering over the timer shown in the God Power timers part of the UI. The notification is visible only to the player who activated it. The effect no longer sends any minimap pings when it occurs.

• Cosmic Guard no longer shows minimap pings; instead, it shows a notification when the effect activates. The notification is only visible to the current player. A future patch will address showing a unique notification message and tooltip similar to the New Fire Ceremony effect.

• Fixed grid UI and hotkeys not working as expected in some additional situations (e.g., partially constructed buildings). (Applied in a minor hotfix patch between main patches).

Controller

• Added support for setting Gather / Rally points on buildings that don’t have units to train or garrisoned units to eject. This feature has been added to the following units: Calpulli Livestock Pen, Sky Passage, and Underworld Passage.

• Fixed a bug that prevented Sons of the Sun from appearing as available on Controller due to a conflict with the Time Shift option.

• Fixed a bug that prevented the Stealth context action for the A button (Square on PS5) while playing on a Controller from functioning correctly.

• Fixed logic for the X button to allow units that can perform a Devote Major action to Garrison into the Great Temple when that action is available.

• The Quick Action for Warrior Priests will now reset to their Transformation action when you age up to the Classical Age with any Aztec Major God. Previously, if you controlled any Warrior Priests prior to entering the Classical Age, they would remain defaulted to a building Quick Action.

• Added Set Gather Point as a D-pad Right shortcut on the Calpulli Livestock Pen so that Controller players can benefit from sending their Turkeys to a specified location.

This is just a small taste of what is coming in the latest update. For a more complete list, please visit our site and check out our blog. Happy Gaming!

:alertalert: DISCLAIMER

This list is subject to change and should not be considered a comprehensive list of all the known issues we’re tracking. The above is to inform you of the team’s current priorities, which will change as other issues arise or take precedence.

For the latest updates and announcements, please visit our social channels.