Aug 3, 2023

Against the Storm - Leisurely Luke

UPDATE (August 4): We released another hotfix that deals with the remaining issues with cornerstones:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3658663641151809466
UPDATE (August 3): We just released a hotfix that deals with a Cornerstone panel issue and we're investigating other reports. We should be able to release another patch on August 4.
https://steamcommunity.com/games/1336490/announcements/detail/3658663641149172398

Greetings, Viceroys!

Homeowners, rejoice! Old Farluf's Fixer Uppers are now open for business. In return for a little investment, you can improve your villagers' living standards and get useful effects that will improve their resourcefulness.

But that's not all! Here's what's new:

Species-specific House Upgrades
New Cornerstones
New Citadel Upgrades
Rebalanced World Events
House slot lock
UX features

Continue reading for the full changelog and our design notes. And don't miss the plush giveaway!

BEAVER PLUSH GIVEAWAY

Together with Makeship, we just launched a giveaway in which you can win 1 of 2 Beaver Villager plushies!

To participate, follow the instructions in the post:
https://twitter.com/AtS_CityBuilder/status/1687077338058498048/

The giveaway ends on August 10 at 2:00 pm ET (6:00 pm UTC).

DEVELOPER NOTES

In today’s update, we bring you a lot of new content, balance changes, and UI improvements. We’re talking house upgrades, new Cornerstones, new Smoldering City upgrades, specialization icons, better overlays, and much, much more.

The biggest addition is the ability to upgrade species-specific housing. Very early on in the project, we played around with the idea of a fully-fledged upgrade system for most buildings in the game, but eventually decided against it. At the time, it didn’t make much sense and added some unnecessary complexity. We implemented upgrades only in a few select places in the game. But recently, motivated by some interesting suggestions from the community, we looked back at our early plans and decided to introduce an upgrade system to one more type of building - species-specific houses. Our main goal is to introduce more depth and interactivity to an aspect of the game that until now has felt pretty static.

So how does it work? Just like you would upgrade a Mine or the Archaeologist’s Office, you can invest extra resources into houses and unlock unique effects for your villagers (using a dedicated tab in the UI). There are two levels of upgrades for every species house, each with two possible improvements to choose from. While the first level has some common bonuses (like more room or increased movement speed), the second one contains one generic effect and one species-specific perk (depending on the type of house). Buying an upgrade will also slightly change the look of the building itself.

To unlock House Upgrades, you must first purchase the corresponding Smoldering City Upgrades:

Beaver House Upgrades - Brass Forge Level 11
Fox House Upgrades - Pioneers’ Gate Level 12
Lizard House Upgrades - Monastery of the Vigilant Flame Level 12
Hapry House Upgrades - Vanguard Spire Level 11
Human House Upgrades - First Dawn Headquarters Level 10

Four variants of the Harpy House

Human House Upgrades

Settlement with different House variants

But housing upgrades are not the only new piece of content coming in this update. We’re also introducing 7 new Cornerstones, most of which are focused on two very specific branches of the game - rainpunk and exploration. We tried to create new effects that would boost these playstyles and create some additional synergies. There are already numerous perks in the game supporting a whole array of different strategies (resolve, trade, farming), but not quite enough Cornerstones rewarding wider exploration or the extensive usage of rain engines.

Aside from all of this, there are also 5 new Smoldering City upgrades to unlock, giving you access to the new housing features and increasing the usual stats a little. This time we didn’t reshuffle the existing upgrades too much (just one of them had its rewards changed), and all the new ones are added on top of the tech tree in the Citadel.

In terms of UI and UX, we added quite a lot of exciting new quality-of-life features, as well as some much-needed improvements here and there. Most notably, we added the option to lock housing slots and introduced specialization icons to worker portraits. We changed how big nodes are displayed when using the resource overlay, and expanded the Hostility tooltip to include values broken down by their source. We also changed how clicking on a notification on the HUD works (it now opens the corresponding UI panel instead of just highlighting it), and we took the time to standardize some problematic tooltip descriptions (for world events, a few Deeds, and effects increasing double production chance).

Specialization icons

Resources Icons

Lastly, this update also brings numerous bug fixes, and some minor balance changes - mostly to do with the rewards and objectives in World Events, the reappearance of a Forest Mystery removed a long time ago (Vassal Tax), and a slightly increased spawn rate for Rainwater Geysers in the Cursed Royal Woodlands.

And now… let’s talk about the upcoming Sealed Forest Update! While we’re still not ready to fully release it, we want to give you an opportunity to get an early look at it and share your feedback with us. This means we will release an Experimental version of the new biome in the coming days! Stay tuned for more info!

As always - thank you all for providing feedback and suggestions for the new update. If you’d like to share your ideas for upcoming updates, here are some useful links:

Steam Discussions, Discord, Reddit - discuss the game with the community and share your impressions
Feature Request Tool - suggest specific new features

May the storm be gentle on you,
Eremite Games

P.S. One of the best things you can do to help indie games is to leave a Steam review. If you’ve had a chance to play Against the Storm, we’d love to hear any feedback, positive or negative. Thanks!

CHANGELOG

Number of changes: 68
Inspired by community: 88%

Changes marked with ⚡ were inspired by the community.

New content and features

⚡ Species-specific houses can now be upgraded.
- There are two levels of upgrades for every species house, each with 2 possible improvements to choose from.
- Players can choose one upgrade per level. Upgrades cost Packs of Building Materials and may also require a secondary resource.
- The first row of upgrades contains general improvements (more room, movement speed). The second row has one general improvement (Resolve) and one unique effect (different for each species).
- To upgrade a house, you have to select it and navigate to the upgrade tab in the building’s UI.
- Once purchased, upgrades are not refunded when a building is destroyed.
- Upgrading a house also slightly changes its look.
- To unlock House Upgrades, you must first purchase the corresponding Smoldering City Upgrades.
⚡ Added 5 new Citadel Upgrades.
- Dim Square Level 10 - more caravan goods (moved from another upgrade) and trader arrival time reduction.
- Brass Forge Level 11 - upgrades for Beaver Houses, global production speed increase.
- Pioneers’ Gate Level 12 - upgrades for Fox Houses, villager speed increase.
- Monastery of the Vigilant Flame Level 12 - upgrades for Lizard Houses, Hearth burning duration increase.
- Vanguard Spire Level 11 - upgrades for Harpy Houses, additional node charges.
⚡ Added 7 new Cornerstones.
- Secure Perimeter - Securing the deadliest corners of the forest will make it a lot less terrifying. Every discovered Forbidden Glade lowers the Hostility gained from Dangerous Glades by 2 and from small glades by 1. (the bonus is added retroactively) [scales with the difficulty]
- Farsight - Scouting ahead makes it easier to prepare for the worst. Discovering a small glade increases the working speed of scouts investigating Dangerous or Forbidden Glade Events by 50% for 120 seconds.
- Blight Filter - A crystalline filter designed to mitigate the negative environmental impact of infused rainwater. Blightrot Cysts appear 50% slower when using Rain Engines, but Reputation from Resolve is generated 90% slower for the next 2 Reputation Points.
- Market Shift Plan - Big strategic changes always come with an adjustment period. Every neighboring town offers +2 more trade routes, but no trader will arrive in your settlement until you complete at least 8 trade routes.
- Master Blueprint - A collection of architectural drafts from a very early period in the Citadel's history. Unlocks all camp blueprints and upgrades all small camps to their advanced version, but gathering speed is decreased by 50% until you deplete at least 10 resource nodes.
- Obsidian Runestone - A complicated runic structure, designed to shield the hearth from corruption. The Ancient Hearth's resistance to corruption is increased by 500, but Blightrot Cysts will take 5 more seconds to burn until you destroy at least 12 of them.
- The Sparkcaster - A more compact version of the famous Blight Fighter flamethrower. Blight Fighters move 30% quicker.

Balance

⚡ Rebalanced multiple World Events.
- Cloaked Wanderer - choosing to assault the wanderer will now grant 10 Seal Fragments instead of 8. The Cloaked Wanderer's Vengeance effect will now kill 8 villagers instead of 10.
- Forsaken Gods Followers - choosing to join the ritual will now require you to win a game before year 8 (instead of 7). Winning the challenge will give you Mushrooms and Reserve Embarkation Points instead of Sea Marrow.
- Crashed Airship - choosing to provide fuel will now require you to win before year 8 (instead of 7). Winning the challenge will give you Pipes and Sea Marrow (instead of just Sea Marrow).
- Gambler - lowered the Food Stockpile bet from 30 to 20.
- Commenda Contract - lowered the required value of completed trade routes from 200 to 150 Amber.
- Fire Moths - choosing to destroy the Hearth will now give you 3 Wildfire Essences instead of 2. The Desecrator penalty will now trigger every time you sacrifice for 90 seconds (instead of 50 seconds).
- Mosquito Nest - choosing to hunt down the swarm mother will now reward Reserve Embarkation Points in addition to Insects.
- Somber Procession - choosing to give provisions will now remove 3 Reserve Embarkation Points instead of 4.
- Stormbird Egg - choosing to steal the egg will now apply the Stormbird's Anger debuff for the next 2 games instead of 3.
⚡ Lowered the requirements for all Rushed Delivery Deeds. They now require fewer completed timed orders.
⚡ Slightly increased the spawn rates of Rainwater Geysers in the Cursed Royal Woodlands.
Reshuffled a few upgrades in the Smoldering City.
- First Dawn Headquarters Level 8 - removed additional caravan goods, added the Plantation Embark Bonus.
- First Dawn Headquarters Level 9 - removed the Plantation Embark Bonus, added the Herb Garden Embark Bonus.
- First Dawn Headquarters Level 10 - removed the Herb Garden Embark Bonus, added Human House upgrades.
Reintroduced a previously disabled Forest Mystery - the Vassal Tax. It requires players to pay Amber each year under penalty of gaining Impatience. We decided to reinstate this effect due to the recent introduction of the payment panel.
Rebalanced the Scientific Agreement perk. It now requires 12 dead villagers for a wildcard blueprint and has a lower drop rate from Mystery Boxes sold by Dullahan.

UX/UI improvements

⚡ Added an option to lock villager slots in houses. You can now click on a slot to prevent a villager from moving in. This change is meant as a way of helping players manage villager distribution across multiple hubs.
⚡ Added specialization icons to villager portraits when selecting workers in buildings.
⚡ Big resource nodes are now marked with star icons when using the resource overlay (B by default).
⚡ Clicking on notifications for things like newcomers or orders now opens the corresponding UI panel instead of just highlighting the button on the HUD (outside of the tutorial).
⚡ Ingredients can now be changed in disabled recipes in the Recipe Panel.
⚡ The Hostility tooltip now shows a breakdown of Hostility values per source. For example: Regular Glades (2 x 15).
⚡ Cost indicators for Embarkation Bonuses now change color to red when the player can’t afford them.
⚡ All descriptions for timed effects (like Resolve bonuses for discovering glades with the Exploration Expedition Cornerstone) have been rewritten. They now clearly state what they do and where they came from. They also have a neutral frame and new names, although the icon is still the same as their source effect.
⚡ Unified the wording for all effects increasing the chance of producing double yields and gathering additional secondary resources from nodes or trees. It should now be much easier to understand what these perks do.
⚡ Added information about cloned events to all perks scaling based on solved Dangerous Events. These perks will now clearly state that duplicated Fishmen Totems and Blood Flowers do not count.
⚡ Clarified the decision descriptions in the Somber Procession World Event. It now clearly states that Reserve Embarkation Points are taken away.
⚡ Unified the objective descriptions of all Deeds and World Event challenges based on winning a game in X years. It should now always say “win before year X”.
⚡ Changed the wording in the description for the Cheap Construction Cornerstone to make it clearer when node charges are being removed.
Added information about effects being retroactive to the reconstructed Sealed Scorpion and Sealed Spider skeletons in the Scarlet Orchard.

Bug fixes

⚡ Fixed a bug with the Blood Sorcery working effect (Fishman Soothsayer) not showing the number of villagers killed.
⚡ Fixed a bug that prevented players from settling on tiles between Forbidden Lands and Barren Lands modifiers.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the Twitch polls feature to break in non-latin versions of the game.
⚡ Fixed a bug with farm ruins occasionally spawning too few fertile soil patches.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Wandering Eremite missing a decision description in its tooltip in the French version of the game.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Force of Nature Cornerstone showing a duplicated sentence at the end of its description.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the extended view distance incorrectly carrying over from one cycle to the next one (causing the last ring of fields to be unclickable).
⚡ Fixed a missing parameter in the starvation warning notification.
⚡ Fixed a bug with wildcard perks not allowing players to pick just one blueprint if the maximum is 2 or higher.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the number of failed towns to be negative in the cycle summary after the tutorial.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Flooded Mines modifier missing information about Hostility scaling.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Forbidden Glade Event missing in the unique insect glade.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Rebellious Spirit Cornerstone being available from Treasure Stags.
⚡ Fixed a bug with the Twitch overlay being displayed on top of the Order tracker on the HUD.
⚡ Fixed an issue with some UI panels not closing when clicking outside of their area.
⚡ Fixed a bug that caused the destruction popup to not appear when trying to destroy species houses.
⚡ Fixed an issue with some Forbidden Glades not being uncovered correctly.
⚡ Fixed an issue with the Economic Migration Cornerstone having an incorrect state preview in its footer.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the description of the Monolith glade event in Japanese.
⚡ Fixed a typo in the Simplified Chinese description of the challenge offered by the Somber Procession World Event.
Fixed a bug with the Royal Tax modifier missing resource names and amounts in its description.
Fixed a bug with the negative consequence of Cloudburst not being displayed on the HUD.
Fixed an issue with neighboring towns in the trading route panel having a click sound even though they are not clickable.

Other

Improved the overall performance of the game, especially when it comes to post processes and weather effects.

The current game version is 0.56.2.

COMMUNITY CORNER

PREVIOUS UPDATES

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3650781073918695896
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3658660471449381227
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3676674235050601004
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1336490/view/3683428365960397833

Aug 3, 2023

Announcing an Experimental Beta Branch - Dev Diary #03

Ravenswatch - MXiaa

Greetings, Ravens!

As you already know, the team at Passtech Games has been working hard on the second Chapter of Ravenswatch! Our Summer update is going along great but we still have a lot of things to do to bring the experience of Chapter Two to the same level as Chapter One. Here are some insights into the development of the Early Access of Ravenswatch!

Where we're at

We are happy with the game's current experience in Early Access. Sure, there are some balancing tweaks to be made, and content is scarce once you’ve reached Nightmare 9 and tried all the seven available heroes. With the arrival of Chapter Two, we hope to double your fun as we understand how frustrating it is to reach Level 5 and not be able to enjoy it at the end of a run.

Launching the Geppetto Update a few months ago has enabled us to add a new and atypical character to the mix. You should have understood by now that we place great emphasis on Heroes and their diversity of playstyles; Geppetto is just an example of how crazy we can get with designs! This previous update was also a good way of making the community wait for Chapter Two, Storm Island being our biggest and most ambitious update looking forward (more on that down below).

We were also able to fix long-time issues such as the random crash that occurred in co-op while defeating the Master Nightmare (whoops), and DX12 issues. Read our previous patch notes here. We are actively working on improving the online experience of Ravenswatch and eradicating remaining bugs and issues.

Experimental Beta branch

Now we understand that the wait between Chapters can be long. We truly are trying our best to respect our timeframe and bring the most polished experience possible to the players. ⚡ Shores of Storm Island ⚡ (the official name of the update) will be massive with a new Chapter to explore, new enemies, a brand new quest to complete, new Bosses, and more Upgrades for all Heroes (as per requested by the community, they have been renamed ‘Talents’).

The Storm Island Update isn’t quite ready to release live, but with that said, we are contemplating the idea of releasing an experimental beta version of it to gather players’ feedback and share our progress with the community. Keep in mind that the beta version will be pretty advanced but not polished at all. You can expect most of the planned content to be there but there will be bugs and things that don’t make total sense (visual or audio feedback may be missing, and behaviors may be buggy…). It’s also full of spoilers for the new content, so if you’re afraid of that you may want to wait for the official release of the update.

With your help, we will be able to take a step back on all of the work we’ve accomplished so far and see how we can improve the game loop with those two Chapters to complete in one run.

What about a sneaky gif of Aladdin in Storm Island?

We will open this experimental branch in the upcoming weeks, stay tuned for that!

⚠ Warning: Your saves may be at risk with the experimental beta branch. We recommend making a copy of it and storing it somewhere safe on your computer if you do decide to partake in this experiment.

What we’re working on

Chapter Two is only one part of our next Major update. You read it right! More content is planned for Shores of Storm Island, here’s a quick look into it:

Levelling-up heroes even further 📈

Reaching Chapter 2 will allow you to keep levelling-up your heroes in your runs! That means you won’t be stuck at level 5 anymore, but you’ll be able to reach level 8 and get new Talents on the way! For that matter, we decided to add about 3 Talents per hero, +20 Talents in total that you’ll get to unlock in the Book.

Here are Scarlet’s new Talents icons, can you try to guess what they do?

Run length ⏱

Previously, with a solo Chapter to play, there were 4 cycles of day and night before the final encounter. With the addition of the second Chapter, we had to adapt this so the overall playtime fits the dense and intense experience we are looking for. Runs are now longer, as the two Chapters will be played over 6 cycles. It means you’ll spend less time on the first Chapter (3 cycles), that’s why we made different adjustments to smooth it up and adapt some things related to the fact that you now play on two Chapters.

The Snow Queen 👑

We chose to make more in-depth changes to the Snow Queen after carefully taking into account the various feedback we received about her, as well as our own perception of the character. Though this hero was very appreciated overall, some of her core mechanics were not satisfying enough ( especially at night, with the removal of most of her immediate damage). We took some time to think about the core aspects of the character, keep what was satisfying with her, adapt the rest, or even rework some aspects to fit better with the vision of a mage/combo character we have. We hope you’ll enjoy it and we are eager to hear your feedback about the changes!

Without getting in too much detail, her ‘Shatter’ move becomes Snow Queen’s Trait as it really is her signature movement. The ‘Ice Skating’ move is now her Defense ability, a perfect way to evade and chill enemies on the way! We added way more changes that you will be able to read in our patch note when we launch the Experimental Beta branch.

Community Questions

Now let’s take some time to answer 3 questions from the community:

Will you be adding a Matchmaking or Quick match system?

YES. The game is currently lacking a way to play with non-friends people, and it became one of our priorities to add this feature in the upcoming months. We’re hoping to release it (or at least a first working prototype) for our Fall Update.
Will you improve the Mini-map readability?
YES. We heard you! We will continuously try to improve the game’s HUD and UI, but the Mini-map and Map in the Inventory became a priority with all the reports we got in the first months of the Early Access. We made many improvements, from new icons to a more detailed layout… Here’s a peek:

Will you add a Reroll mechanic?

MAYBE. We read some good ideas about this suggestion, and we’re thinking about it. We’ll have to see how it could fit into the current game loop. But if you’ve been here since the Early Access of Curse of the Dead Gods (our previous game), you know we ended up adding this community-requested feature into the game by popular demand 😛

Fun stat

To conclude this never-ending post, here’s a fun stat: Someone in the player’s base (we have an idea who, but manifest yourself!) beat the game in Nightmare 9: 597 times! That’s a crazy number and it deserved to be celebrated 🥳

Thank you for reading, we hope you were able to have a good look at our we apprehend things and what’s coming soon! We are also participating in the Future Game Show on August 23rd for Gamescom 2023! Watch the event live to have even more details about Shores of Storm Island!

Our team is also getting ready to move into new and bigger offices in August, so that’s an eventful month at Passtech Games! In the meantime, cheers!

The team enjoying a well-deserved drink after work, in Lyon, France

- The Passtech Team 🍉

:: SOCIAL CHANNELS ::

Visit Passtech Games website: https://www.passtechgames.com
Follow the Ravenswatch Twitter account: https://twitter.com/PlayRavenswatch
Join Ravenswatch’s subreddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/ravenswatch
Follow Passtech Games on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PasstechGames
Watch us on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/passtechgames
Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gaming/PasstechGames
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/passtechgames

Aug 3, 2023

Balance Patch 1.03 released!

Jagged Alliance 3 - Home

Hi everyone

Our first balance patch 1.03 is out. It addresses some of concerns about the easier difficulty as well as combat issues related to explosives and machine guns. A host of other fixes are also included.

Here is the changelog for Patch 1.03:

Highlights

- Enemy attacks from guard posts on the First Blood difficulty trigger less often
- Diamond mines deplete to 50% income on First Blood difficulty; 20% on Commando difficulty; 0% on Mission Impossible (Community Suggestion)
- Mines now show how close they are to depletion in their tooltip
- Fixed a bug that scaled mine income up when depletion began
- Machine gun damage reduced
- Machine gun number of interrupt attacks are now based on current AP not max AP (calculated at end of turn) (Community Suggestion)
- Fixed a bug with Machine guns interrupt attacks getting aim bonuses when they shouldn’t
- Grenade and Rocket-Launchers mishap chance and deviation now depend on distance to target (Community Suggestion)

Balance

- Increased drop chance of black powder
- Increased Scully Health so he qualified for the golden perk he starts with (Community Suggestion)
- Savior perk no longer grants Free Move
- Fix for bonus damage from explosives applying twice when using grenades (Community Suggestion)
- Changed thresholds for displaying keywords for mishap chance with explosives

Quest

- Fix for stopping the Grimer Hamlet quest too early
- Fix in the conversation of the Grimer Hamlet quest
- Fix for Sanatorium fail condition not to trigger when the quest is completed
- H4 Fort L'Eau Bleu will launch attacks properly when retaken by the enemy

Sat view / Operations

- Water travel can now put you in debt, and is available when already in debt (Community Suggestion)
- Militia training operation - the button for training is disabled when there are 8 elite units already trained
- R&R at Manny's Inn's sector is enabled (Community Suggestion)

Multiplayer

- Fix for desync when opening weapon modification screen in MP
- Fix combat end turn ready/not ready state visually not updating when guest leaves in MP

General Fixes

- Fix for missing merc silhouette when using melee Free Aim on an explosive barrel
- Fix for mercs not being able to rest if there is a current active banter
- Fix for Infinite loading screen softlock when loading during a setpiece or enemies reposition
- Fix for load/save changing the ammo capacity of some weapons
- Fix for an issue preventing Bandage to remove Bleeding out of combat if the target is at full hp
- Fix for Mortar visuals appearing distorted
- Fix for Sharpened Melee weapons reverting conditions
- Fix for issue which would cause movement cost to not include the cost of changing the stance at the end of movement and fail the action as a result
- Fix Loner perk activating at combat start instead of turn start
- Fix for emails marked as unread after reloading the game (Community Suggestion)
- Fixes to the shootable landmine count
- Fix for softlock when a lieutenant dies on the start of their turn from a status/environmental damage effect
- Fix for softlock after opening the laptop screen or Help Center during Split & Give item option
- Fix for UI disappearing when pressing open the "command menu" in the inventory panel - when using a gamepad
- Fix for being able to load a game while loading
- Fix for Quick-Prism Scope giving max aim instead of 3 aim levels on activation
- Fix for issue when refilling Medkit with drag and drop for single Meds drops the Medkit condition to 50% Bug
- Fix for Overwatch kills not counting to "Automatic kills" combat task
- Fix for incorrect visibility check leading to UI giving movement warnings when it shouldn't
- Fix for an issue that would reset the number of overwatch attacks to their initial amount when killing a unit

- Inventory context menu - hide some actions for stash items that are in different sector
- Fix for rollovers of underground sector (such as the Fosse Noire mine) points of interest
- Fix for an overlap in floating text between skill checks and banters
- Fix for Mishap chance tooltip not updating properly
- Fix for exclamation mark in email tab not disappearing after reading all emails

Performance

- Improved VRAM management to address various performance issues

Aug 3, 2023

New Free Trial Comes to AoE III: DE on Steam!

Age of Empires® III (2007) - Lady Eridani

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is launching a new way to play! For the first time, new players can now join the ranks of this historical and stunning RTS experience with a rotating roster of the game’s 16 civilizations which can be played in both single player and multiplayer games FREE of purchase on Steam.

Now is the time to try Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition! Play for the first time or current AoE III: DE players can invite their friends for epic battles in striking 4K Ultra HD graphics.

Starting today, AoE III: DE will be offering new players the opportunity to play a free trial that gives access to the following:

3 civs on a rotating schedule for skirmish & multiplayer matches
8 hostable maps
Act 1 of the Blood, Ice, and Steel campaign
Art of War challenges
And more!

Plus, all players will be able to join in on monthly global events to unlock new Hero Cosmetics!

How to Access

Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is now available to download for free on Steam! New players can jump into a trial version simply by downloading the game on Steam, and open to access straight from the menu!

Already own Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition? Then fear not, as this will not impact current players. All you have to do is invite your friends!
Or, are you ready to access Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition base game with all the civilizations and extras? Get the base game instead!

What is Included?
Pool of 3 Playable Civilizations on a Rotating Schedule
Players can pick from 3 civilizations on a rotating schedule. Every week, the first civilization adding to the starting pool rotates out and a new one in. First up in the roster of playable civilizations are the French, Haudenosaunee, and Russians.

First civilization rotation is on August 18th.
The First Act of the Blood, Ice, and Steel Campaign

Take advantage of the first campaign and jump into an epic journey!

Follow Morgan Black; Knight of St. John on his quest to the New World. Do battle with the hardy Ottoman Empire, ferocious pirates and a dangerous secret society. Befriend unlikely allies and earn their aid to complete your quest of defeating the Circle of Ossus; and their plans to obtain eternal life.
Play the Algiers Historical Battle
Historical battles are story-driven historical narratives in which you’ll be given specific set objectives to complete. Each Historical battle has fully voiced in-game dialogue, beautifully crafted maps, cities and cinematics and the best part is, you can play them with a friend!

Where to Find Co-Op:
Co-Op is easily accessible from two different places within the UI.

From the Historical Battles screen.
From the Main Menu, click on Historical Battles.
Select your mission.
Click on the Host Co-Op button.
You can choose to make it public or password protected, and like any multiplayer game, invite your friends.
From the Multiplayer screen.
From the Main Menu, click on Multiplayer.
Choose Host a Casual Game.
From the Host Game dialog pop-up, under Game Mode, you can choose Co-Op Battle from drop down list.
After selecting Co-Op Battle, simply choose which battle you want to play from the Co-Op Scenario drop down list.
Algiers Historical Battle

In the 16th century privateering in the Mediterranean flourished as a result of the staunch rivalry between the Ottoman Empires and the European Christian states. Famous Barbary corsairs like Hayreddin Barbarossa and his brothers gained infamy because of their great success while privateering. In 1516 the brothers managed to take the city of Algiers, deposing its former ruler, and creating their own Barbary pirate state. However, the Spanish were not going to let a pirate state exist so close to their homeland and sent a large army to deal with the Barbary threat and acquire the city of Algiers.

Access to the Art of War, Compendium, and Tech Trees of All Civilizations

Art of War
Hone your skills and strategy with the Art of War – a set of 10 in-game tutorials designed to quickly teach the core skills you’ll need to win!

Compendium
Explore the history of each civilization, their military, buildings and more in the in-game Compendium.

Tech Trees
Learn the strategies and tactics available to each civilization in the Technology Tree. Detailing their unique roster of units, technologies, and bonuses to unlock their true potential.
A Collection of 8 Hostable Multiplayer Maps

Host a match and choose from 8 Maps!

🌐 Central Asia:[expand type=details]
Central Asia: Teams are separated by two shallow rivers that flow into the Aral Sea in this arid region.

Settlements: Tengri, Sufi.

Outlaws: Wokou Horseman, Wokou Monk.
[/expand]
🌐 Deccan:[expand type=details]
Deccan: A central, forested plateau overlooking a series of strategically placed trade sites.

Settlements: Udasi, Sufi, Bhakti

Outlaws: Marathan Dacoit, Marathan Thuggee
[/expand]
🌐 Great Plains:[expand type=details]
Great Plains: Home of many Natives and plenty of Food.

Settlements: Comanche, Cheyenne, Apache

Outlaws: Comanchero, Renegado
[/expand]
🌐 Guianas:[expand type=details]
Guianas: Control the central resources and settlements in this large valley, or extend to the perimeter of the map to establish a foothold on a trade route.

Settlements: Caribs, Tupi

Outlaws: Pistolero, Pirate
[/expand]
🌐 Northwest Territory:[expand type=details]
Northwest Territory: A green and rainy region divided by rivers with shallow crossings.

Settlements: Nootka, Klamath, Cree

Outlaws: Comanchero, Renegado
[/expand]
🌐 Malaysia:[expand type=details]
Malaysia: A peninsular region with separate, defendable oceans on each side.

Settlements: Jesuit, Sufi

Outlaws: Marathan Dacoit, Wokou Pirate
[/expand]
🌐 Mongolia:[expand type=details]
Mongolia: Explore generous grassland populated with unprecedented herds of grazing animals and a distant northern Trade Route.

Settlements: Tengri, Shaolin

Outlaws: Wokou Horseman, Wokou Monk
[/expand]
🌐 Saguenay:[expand type=details]
Saguenay: A coastal region with plenty of resources. It may be summer or winter.

Settlements: Cree, Huron

Outlaws: Pistolero, Comanchero
[/expand]

New Global Events! Unlock New Hero Cosmetics
Starting August 2, all players will be able to participate in a Hero Cosmetic challenge event each month! The aim of each of the events is the same – to have a target number of participants join and play to reach the goal of unlocking that month’s Hero Cosmetic to use in game.

In order to participate in the challenge, simply play a single player or multiplayer game to earn XP and gain entry to a leaderboard for the challenge. When there are enough entries on the leaderboard a Hero Cosmetics is awarded to anyone who participates in the challenge.

To find the event progress, navigate to the UI panel on the Main Menu. Statistics are displayed for the following:
Target number of participants
Current number of participants
Icon and description of the Hero Cosmetic reward
Featured Civilization: August
Reward
Cosmetic
Russians
Mila the Bear
Look into those big wide eyes,
could that bear ever harm anyone?
She just wants to play! Hurl around
those enemy soldiers through the air!

FAQ
1) Will the free trial version be available on Windows Store?[expand type=details]This will be available on Steam only. Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition is available for free via Game Pass![/expand]
2) I already own Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition, will this affect me?[expand type=details]This will not impact current Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition owners. However this will be the chance to invite friends and new players to try it out![/expand]
3) Will ranked be available in the free trial version?[expand type=details]Ranked is available only in the base game, which can be purchased here.[/expand]
4) Will free trial players be able to play with players who own the base game?[expand type=details]Yes, trial game players can play with base game owners, and both game owner types can host multiplayer games.

If trial players hosts a multiplayer game, they can choose from the limited set of maps available to host on. If a base game owner hosts, any owned maps can be chosen for the map, and trial game players can join the game even if they don’t own the map.[/expand]

Need more help? Visit our support page here!

Want Access to All the Civilizations and Extras?

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2477660