Community Patch

As we did with previous expansions of Definitive Edition, in this page I will document the process of adapting the new civilizations to the Community Patch. 08/04/2022. Some desciptions leaked Currently known as the “Porto” DLC, some screenshot was shared in AoEZone about the upcoming expansion. This new expansion of Definitive Edition renames the Indians Hindustanis and adds three new civilizations. What we have right now are only bonus and tech descriptions, no information on the unique unit habilities. Let’s go over them and comment what may be problematic to adapt. Hindustanis Basically a renaming of the Indians. Still mentions the elephant archer although the image of the unique unit seems to be an infantry unit. It has been...

The Handicap mode is a new feature introduced in Definitive Edition designed to balance teams where players have very different levels. It boosts some players in several ways: Faster gather rate for villagers. Higher carry capacity. More starting resources. Higher Villager HP. Faster build speed. More HP on all buildings. More bonus damage for counter units. Faster work rate for military buildings. The handicaps levels are set via a percentage, 100% being no boost at all and 200% the maximum value. Basic implementation of the handicap An implementation of the handicap mode is very straightforward to come up with. We just need several technologies, each with an effect that boosts the aforemontioned stats by the desired percentage...

import math ''' function to generate all the team distributions of a given number of players taking care that teams have at least 2 players and only the first teams are filled n: number of players to assign distrib: list with the number of players in each team. Initially all zeros indexes: 0: unassigned players, 1,2,3,4: teams t: team to asign, initially 1 ''' def team_variations(n,distrib,t): #list with all the variations to be retrieved after all team_variations executions finish global variations #case of unassigned players, team 5 if t == 5: distrib[0]=n #add players to the unasigned players team variations.append(distrib)#add distribution to the list of variations return...

import math ''' function to generate all the team distributions of a given number of players taking care that teams have at least 2 players and only the first teams are filled n: number of players to assign distrib: list with the number of players in each team. Initially all zeros indexes: 0: unassigned players, 1,2,3,4: teams t: team to asign, initially 1 ''' def team_variations(n,distrib,t): #list with all the variations to be retrieved after all team_variations executions finish global variations #case of unassigned players, team 5 if t == 5: distrib[0]=n #add players to the unasigned players team variations.append(distrib)#add distribution to the list of variations return...

There is not too much in the field of random map scripting that I can add. The best thing I can do is share the most complete guide I know of Definitive Random Map Scripting Guide It’s a very complete and up to date guide, that even informs which version of the game supports each command, so that people programing for older versions of the game are aware of it. I have tried to do some research on the field of porting scripts from Definitive Edition to Wololo Kingdoms DE. However I’ve been unable to create a tool able to completly translate the code; there are too many variables I may have not encountered and different scripters have different ways of writting the variables that confuse any automatic translator. What I can contribute...

We now look at the case where we want to port the graphic of a unit from Definitive Edition.This guide is partly based on this video by Harkamui but some of the steps are different. We’ll use the Coustillier as an example. This guide will cover the angle count, the reduction on the number of frames, the recoloring and reduction of the shadow and the generation of data graphics. The same process is used for buildings, although without having to worry about angles. 1. Locating graphic files from Definitive Edition. Graphics in Definitive Edition follow a similar path as in AoE II HD. That is “AoE2DE\resources\_common\drs\graphics”. In there you will see a bunch of .smx files. This folder is easier to navigate since the names are...

So far we’ve covered adding graphics to the game that we see while playing. However, if we were to do the same thing for the main menu or other loading screens of the game, we would see that the colors are wrong. The reason for this is again the palettes, these graphics use different ones from the Standard_Graphics one. The first help I got for this was in this page. However, I’m going to cover it so that you don’t need to download stuff, as the palettes we need are already stored in the game. Locating the interface data All the information and files we need are stored in the file “interfac.drs”. This file is not shipped with the mods, it is stored in the root data folder of AoE II. When you open it with Turtle Pack, you’ll see it...

Empire Wars is a new game mode introduced in Age of Empires II Definitive Edition where the players start already in Feudal Age with an already established economy. The main idea is to bypass the early build-up phase of the game. Replicating this mode in the old AoC we use in Voobly is virtually impossible. Definitive Edition introduced several new commands on the map generation scripts that allow placing villagers near resources and have them working at the start of the game. All this allows random map generation so that every match is different. There is however one thing we can do to mimic Empire Wars on Voobly: custom scenarios. Through the scenario editor it’s possible to create a base, populate it with villagers and set them to...

If you look at the list of new features and units in the v1.6 Game Data mod, you’ll see a lot of units and buildings labeled as “TO DO”. Most of the stuff we have added so far has been focused on random maps and the new civilizations. Alongside with that, Definitive Edition added new hero units and special buildings that you only encounter in scenarios. Similarly, we have added new graphics for normal units and buildings but there are some animals and other decorative elements of random maps that still use the old graphics. With all the information explained in this guide, you should be able to add some of these units or graphics to the mod. Here I’m going to explain the process you need to do to make sure we can incorporate it to the...

I have basically no idea on AI scripting but there are some things that may be of use for people trying to port other AIs for mods. Eagle Scouts One of the changes in Definitive Edition and in Wololo Kingdoms DE, is that eagle scouts have their line of sight reduced to 5. This is something that needs to be modified for meso american civilizations. Constants AIs include a file full of identifiers of the units, technologies and buildings available in random maps. In Promi’s AIs, this is the const.per file. Artificial intelligences that work on the original Wololo Kingdoms or Definitive Edition, like Promi, work pretty well with Wololo Kingdoms DE except for when it comes to the new civilizations. There are two reasons for that: New...

Let’s look first at a situation where we want to add a new graphic to the game but not a unit or a building that would require dealing with the data graphics. I’m going to follow the process I had to do to add the button in the mill that changes the behaviour of fishermen between using the dock or the town center and mill. 1. Obtaining the graphics as bmp files. First we need to create the graphics to add. In this case, we want a button that is either the dock icon or the icon with a cross in front. To obtain the dock icon, we have to go to file 50706.slp, that stores the building icons, we scroll down until finding the dock icon and extract it. When you extract a file, Turtle Pack will ask you to choose a background color. The best...

The Wololo Kingdoms DE project has been discontinued due to personal reasons. A new team of developers has taken over and forked the Wololo Kingdoms DE project. The old WK DE website "aoe2de.com" has also been retired by its owners. Community Patch 1.6 has been released on Voobly and MPHQ is now hosting all articles and documents related to the project.

Bonus armor for elephants The absorption of bonus damage from Definitive Edition has been modified to increases in their armor that does not mean the same numbers from all units but still makes bengali elephants more resistant to counters. The civilization bonus of Bengalis where elephant units absorb 25% of the bonus damage is implemented in the Community Patch by increasing the armor of elephants in the special classes, such as elephant, cavalry or archers. The armor increases happen when reaching feudal or when researching the corresponding armor technology. This way, I give the opponent time to research the corresponding counter unit upgrade. The following is a comprehensive list of all the changes. Elephant Archers Elephant...

Houfnice The Houfnice you see in the Scenario Editor doesn’t have the “Attack ground” button. To show it, you need to place Bombard Cannons and have them upgrade to Houfnices. This is irrelevant in a standard game.

Stone miners generate gold This bonus requires using the patch. The bonus activates if you have villagers working on any resource except for wood and stone. This won’t be an issue in a normal game but keep it in mind if you are testing. Obuch’s bonus damage The Definitive Edition ability to reduce armor is adapted here to a bonus damage against units with high armor. In Definitive Edition, the Poles unique unit, the Obuch, has the ability to reduce the armor of units with every hit, meaning that each hit deals more and more damage. Since we can not replicate this in Community Patch v1.6, the new proposed ability is to have the Obuch deal additional damage to units with high armor but little extra damage to units with low armor. This...

Bonus armor The absorption of bonus damage from Definitive Edition has been modified to increases in their armor that does not mean the same numbers from all units but still makes sicilian units more resistant to counters. The civilization bonus of Sicilians where land units absorb 33% of the bonus damage is implemented in Community Patch by increasing the armor of units in the special classes, such as cavalry or archers. The armor increases happen when reaching feudal or when researching the corresponding armor technology. This way, I give the opponent time to research the corresponding counter unit upgrade. The following is a comprehensive list of all the changes. Archers Feudal Age: Archer units gain +1 archer armor for a total...

Flemish Revolution Converting all villagers into Flemish Millitia has the side effect that, after it, all new villagers will be females.

We now have the relic bonus properly working, thanks to Katsuie. In order to have this bonus you must have the patch activated, with or without overlay. Also bear in mind the following conditions: The bonus activates if you have villagers working on any resource except for wood. This won’t be an issue in a normal game but keep it in mind if you are testing. If you save and restore a game, leave 3 secons pass before garrison/ungarrison relics or idling all your villager through the town bell. The patch needs this time to re-identify players and count again the number of relics each one has.

The only known issue of this civilization, discovered by NighttFury, is related to the feudal Town Center. Building this Town Center takes longer to build than regular Town Centers (270 seconds against 150). If you reach Castle Age while the feudal Town Center is in process but the villagers have worked on it for more than 150 seconds, it will build automatically. However, since buildings gain HP as they build, the Town Center will not be at full health. So far I haven’t found a way around this.

Arambais look in the game as having 12 pierce damage and 15 on elite, similar to Definitive Edition. However, if you test it, you will see thay deal 12 (15) damage against buildings but 15 (18) damage against units. I implemented it this way so as to compensate the fact that, in Definitive Edition, their missed shots deal full damage, as opposed to the half damage they deal in Wololo Kingdoms DE. You can read all about in the document Arabai’s damage.

The closest aproximation to this bonus is changing the dropsite of farmers to themselves. Still, it’s not possible to make the farmers drop each unit of food individually as they do in DE since that implies that farmers stop constanly, greatly reducing their gather rate. I’ve left their carry capacity intact so they gather until reaching it and then drop off without moving. I included some modifications to their work rates depending on the upgrades to better approximate the gather rate on DE, you can see the results in this spreadsheet.

The new implementation of Atheism now correctly reduces the gold generation of enemy relics. However, in order to implement it, I had to modify the Flaming camel for the Huns. This means that if a hun player gets a camel via conversion or scenario, once Atheism is researched, when the camel dies the game will crash. You can read about the implementation here.

The patch now recognises the civilization you are about to play with and reproduces the civilization theme before the soundtrack. We have also added the remastered soundtrack from Definitive Edition. Additionally, the tracklist is shuffled with every update.

This functionality is based on the mods Tech hotkeys and Queuing Researches V. We now have independent hotkeys for technologies on the Town Center, Blacksmith, University and Monastery. Also, Steppe Lancer, Flaming Camel and Go to Krepost have their own hotkey, see their respective menus. We still have some other technologies sharing hotkeys with others, read the Hotkey configuration for more information. Currently, the only way to edit the hotkeys is through the game menu. The functionallity is not implemented in mill, lumber and mining camp due to conflicts with the icons. The ages don’t have hotkeys, nor can you queue them, because if I do that it won’t show the progress in the top of the screen.

New versions of the Patch allow fishermen to use the dock to drop food.

This game mode, activated via a separated mod, boosts some of the players to compensate large differences in ELO. The handicap mode increases by a percentage several aspects of the gameplay: Faster gather rate for villagers. Higher carry capacity. Longer lasting resources. More starting resources. Higher Villager HP. Faster build speed. More HP on all buildings More bonus damage for counter units Faster work rate for military buildings Additionally, the Handicap mode in the Community Patch includes the possibility to activate the handicap at a later age, to give room for more tweaking players. This feature is unique to the Community Patch and is not present in Definitive Edition.

The maps that include the code “FP” (for example “DE+FP_Arabia”) are programmed so that, when playing team games, you can decide wether to be pocket or flank depending on the color you choose. Bear in mind the following restrictions: Fixed positions maps are programmed for 3v3 games and 4v4 games and any other setting can create weird generations. If you want to play with other number of players or teams, use a map without fixed positions. The teams must be odd numbers (1, 3, 5, 7) against even numbers (2, 4, 6, 8). If you don’t choose a color following this, you may end up between enemies. Matches of 3v3 players must be played with the 6 first numbers. That is 1, 3, 5 against 2, 4, 6. The map assigns positions in the same way DE...

The maps that include the code “AV” (for example “DE+AV_Arabia”) will have Allied Vision activated from the begining of the match. The maps that have an Allied Vision version by default are the following: Arabia. Nomad. Land Nomad. Black Forest. Black Forest Lord. Forest Prison. Additional maps with allied vision can be generated via the Handicap map creator. Leave the handicap levels to 100% for all players to ensure all players play fairly.

All of our custom maps now include a functionality from Definitive Edition that allows the same map to generate different terrains and animals. This way, you will encounter more variability when playing DE maps. Also, we have three random map pools that are updated regularly. Three generations of the same Arabia script.

This is implemented through separated mod that implements 1v1 Arabia maps where you start directly on Feudal Age with a working economy to bypass the early stages in Dark Age. This mod was possible thanks to the help of several volunteers that produced the maps and is still open for new uploads. If you want to collaborate to the Empire Wars game mode, read this guide.

Version of Age of Mandala, by GorLeon, but where the circles update with the range upgrades. WololoKingdoms DE is the first mod to have this functionality. If Definitive Edition ever implements it, remember that you saw it here first. Do not use the basic Age of Mandala alongside this version as you will see the static lines and adapting ones.

This AI, adapted from Promi 2.10, recognises the civilizations Cumans, Bulgarians, Lithuaninans and Tatars. I’ve made some minor modifications to it so that it recognises the new units and techologies. On the tests I’ve made, the AI creates new unique units and seems to be able to do things like Cuman feudal boom. I have very little idea on AI scripting so don’t expect it to improve with future versions. I don’t recoment using this AI for Burgundians, Sicilians, Poles and Bohemians. The AI may behave weirdly or not work at all.

The patch now includes the posibility of selecting multiple walls. Multiple selection of walls can be done in two ways: Double clicking on walls works with foundations but not finished walls. Square selecting works with all walls. If you select a wall alongside a villager, the game will prioritize the villager and its interface. This two multiple selection options can be enabled in the patch options in the game room.

The patch now includes the option to auto-save games while playing, to provide a secondary backup file in case of crashes. Read more in our how to play page.

The patch now includes several “select all” hotkeys, such as idle villagers, Town Centers, military buildings, etc. Depending on wether you have the global queue activated or not, these hotkeys are handled in a different way. WITHOUT global queue The select all hotkeys are disabled by default for performance reasons. Activate them in the patch options. The patch now includes hotkeys to select all units or buildings of a given type. The options are: Select all idle villagers Select all idle military Select all idle trade carts Select all Town Centers Select all Barracks Select all Archery Ranges Select all Stables Select all Siege Workshops Select all Docks Select all Markets Select all Monasteries Select all Castles Select all...

We now have a new resource interface that shows the villager distribution per resource and displays the number of idles. This new interface is compatible with every computer and operating system. Additionally, you can enable a global building queue that displays all units and technologies in process. This global queue does require an up to date computer and a modern operating system. Read more in our How to play page. Known Issues The global queue is an aditional program called AOC DE Overlay that runs with the game and may cause performance issues. If you are having troubles with it, you can try the following: Add the patch folder “v1.6 RC” to your antivirus exceptions. Since the overlay is an additional program unknown to your...

This functionality is a version of the patch DE features by Katsuie. It adds the autoreseeding farms button in the mill. When you press the button, the mill will queue a farm. Every time a villager reseeds a farm and uses the queued one, the mill will automatically queue a new one.

The patch now includes the option to auto-save games while playing, to provide a secondary backup file in case of crashes. This feature will save the game every 6 minutes and create a file called “Auto_restore.msz” in the folder “v1.6 Game Data\SaveGame\Multi”. Some notes on the new feature: When the game is saved, you’ll notice a momentary freeze. The feature is disabled by default, you can activate it in the patch options as the interface or the language. As long as one of the players has the feature active, the auto-save will be in effect.

The patch now includes several “select all” hotkeys, such as idle villagers, Town Centers, military buildings, etc. Depending on wether you have the global queue activated or not, these hotkeys are handled in a different way. WITHOUT global queue The select all hotkeys are disabled by default for performance reasons. Activate them in the patch options. The patch now includes hotkeys to select all units or buildings of a given type. The options are: Select all idle villagers Select all idle military Select all idle trade carts Select all Town Centers Select all Barracks Select all Archery Ranges Select all Stables Select all Siege Workshops Select all Docks Select all Markets Select all Monasteries Select all Castles Select all...

Resource Interface The Community Patch now has two different resource interfaces: The original resource interface that only display the resource amount. The new Advanced Interface, that adds villager distribution per resource and idles counte. Both interfaces should be compatible with any computer and don’t require the overlay program. You can activate the Advanced interface in the patch options. Global Queue Aditionally to the resource interface, you can activate the Global Queue, which displays the units and technologies being researched in all your buildings. This global queue uses an additional program called “AOC Overlay” that only runs in modern and up to date computers. Command bar position If you want to use the Advanced...

The patch now includes the posibility of selecting multiple walls. Multiple selection of walls can be done in two ways: Double clicking on walls works with foundations but not finished walls. Square selecting works with all walls. If you select a wall alongside a villager, the game will prioritize the villager and its interface. This two multiple selection options can be enabled simultaneously in the patch options in the game room.

When the Community Patch is installed, the new hotkeys are deactivated so as not to introduce conflicts with your setting. This means that the mod will use the default hotkey file “player1.hki” located in the root AoE2 folder, see picture. Since the Community Patch comes with a lot of new hotkey entries for technologies, you may not be able to access them with your default hotkeys file. To be able to use the new hotkeys, navigate to the mod’s folder and rename “player1_tech_HK.hki” to “player1.hki”. This will make the game use this file instead of the default one. Start the game in Single Player mode, go to the options and configure your own hotkeys. When you are done, the hotkeys will be saved in player1.hki. If you leave your...

With the v1.6 Game Data mod, you can set the language in the patch options. After changing the language, start the game on your own. The game will close inmediatly which means the patch changed the language. In case you don’t use english, make sure to start the game on your own after every update before playing with others.

Please make sure, you enable the following settings: Enable: Force Desktop Resolution in Game Enable: Disable display scaling on high DPI settings Enable: Render in 32-bit color Enable: Start in Window-Mode

Here is a detailed description of the most significant changes introduced in the mod. I copied the balance changes from the Definitive Edition game files, following the list provided in Age of Empires Wiki. If some change is not listed there, it’s possible that I don’t know about so tell me. The current patch we have implemented from DE is 66692. In order to properly use the mod, you need to activate both the Community Patch v1.6 RC and the Data Mod v1.6 Game Data. Features are programmed in either of those and only work when combined: For some of the patch features already existing in the 1.5 version, read here.

Select both, the v1.6 RC user patch, as well as the v1.6 Game Data mod in your game settings.

The chapter links below explain how to play Community Patch 1.6 on Voobly.

The maps below cannot be played using Age of Empires II – The Conquerors or Age of Empires II (2013), formerly known as AoE Ii HD. In other words, the maps can be played using Wololo Kingdoms DE only. By default, our installer comes with the following DE maps: File Name SHA2 DE_Acropolis.rms 5c815e3906b4b77dd19d0cd3966df99371115465dddb2a87354c9f65d6eef97a DE_Arabia.rms bcc1ad8efff23d4b4aa3552b836bb97178482b54bf379bfa55076d8367000d50 DE_Arena.rms c044d9eb1b24f27b046e74b53fe3c37ae3d14043957c758aa244f26f6ad64532 DE_Baltic.rms 587aa5a6757d61a4935a9be853c15a595eb4f7cc8992e264882587067eda80bf DE_Caribbean.rms 9cb5e5100be701de691bbd26def1974668c2f72f420d7700e3219dec3bf641c7 DE_Cenotes.rms...

The random map pool is installed through it own mod. With the mod activated, you can access the random map pools via the Custom maps option. There you will see three options: DE_Random_open, with only open maps. DE_Random_closed, with only walled or easily wallable maps. DE_Random_pool, with a variety of maps chosen by a poll among the users. These random pools will generate a map randomly from a given set of maps and probabilities. See the mod’s page for the current maps. To make it easy to identify the map you are playing when using the random pools, we have added the name into the Town Center during Dark Age. Once a month we will update the maps in the pools. You can help decide the maps in next version’s map pool by filling...

Copyright © 2009 – 2023 Member Plus Headquarters Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License“.

Copyright © 2009 – 2023 Member Plus Headquarters Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License“.

Copyright © 2009 – 2023 Member Plus Headquarters Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License“.

Copyright © 2009 – 2023 Member Plus Headquarters Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License“.

A compilation of links related to AOE 2 Definitive Edition (DE) Game Data https://www.voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1533/v16-Game-Data https://www.voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1519/v16-RC Game Patches https://www.voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1667/v16-RC-Beta https://www.voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1662/v16-RC-Destruction Visual Mods Resources & Terrains https://voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1438/DE-Maps https://voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1474/DE-Terrains-with-grid https://voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1459/DE-Farms https://voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1472/DE-Gold-and-Stone https://voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1481/DE-Small-Trees https://voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1479/DE-Berries https://voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1473/DE-Terrains https://voobly.com/gamemods/mod/1480/DE-Trees...

Our Community Patch 1.6 is now part of the Voobly Mod Center and no longer requires an external installer to be downloaded and run on your computer. Same goes for updates which will be downloaded and installed automatically once you enter the client. The patch is divided into two packages, the patch itself and the visual mod (strictly speaking, Age of Empires II DE is just a visual mod) which is called Game Data. Both packages are mandatory and must be selected in your game room settings as explained in the How to Play section. Download 1.6 Patch By default, the Game Data package doesn't contain any of the new graphics. This was made to avoid any confusion when playing, since most of our players are old-school player playing Age of...

When Microsoft started working on AoE II DE, they promised us that they would do anything to unite the community again. The bottom line is, Microsoft did the same thing they were doing more than 15 years ago. They forced the community into their “in-game match making system” without any social gaming features or the ability to chat and interact with each other. Even worse, they removed the ability to create LAN/IP games and “destroyed” all other community projects, including User Patch and Wololo Kingdoms. You may read the full story here.

You either need Age of Empires II (2013) formerly known as AoE II HD or the good old Age of Empires II – The Conquerors Expansion. Community patch 1.6 is a fork of Wololo Kingdoms.

We are just random players of the Voobly community. We are not affiliated with Voobly, nore are we affiliated with the User Patch or the Wololo Kingdoms HD project. We are also no Microsoft haters, but we refuse to use the original AoE DE because Microsoft refuses listen to their old MSN Gaming Zone community. More than 50 players of the Voobly community have actively contributed to the Wololo Kingdoms DE project.

It’s not possible. Community Patch 1.6 is a multi player add-on, we do not offer and never will offer any single player features such as campaigns. Please use the original game, if you want to play any of the campaigns.

Absolutely! Microsoft has removed the ability to play IP games in AoE II DE to force the community to unite on their “in-game match making system” without any social gaming features or the ability to chat and interact with each other. This is another reasons, why we decided to work on Wololo Kingdoms DE. We also still play on Voobly, which has become our sanctuary after the MSN Gaming Zone has closed in 2006.

When Microsoft started working on AoE II DE, they promised us that they would do anything to unite the community again. The bottom line is, Microsoft did the same thing they were doing more than 15 years ago. They forced the community into their “in-game match making system” without any social gaming features or the ability to chat and interact with each other. Even worse, they removed the ability to create LAN/IP games and “destroyed” all other community projects, including User Patch and Wololo Kingdoms. You may read the full story here.

Community patch 1.6 is a multi player add-on for Voobly, an offline patch is not available and not supported at this time.

Yes, we did. The Microsoft people were very polite and we used to talk a lot in the past, the XBox people however have tried to avoid us at all costs. A popular quote from a XBox Manager: “There is no political will to bring back the old MSN Gaming Zone or use a Zone-like client.” In other words: “We are not willing to admit, that the closure of the MSN Gaming Zone in 2006 was the biggest mistake ever.” Fun fact: Microsoft was offered to acquire Voobly. Also read our article: Wake up, Microsoft!

Copyright © 2009 – 2023 Member Plus Headquarters Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled “GNU Free Documentation License“.

When Microsoft started working on AoE II DE, they promised us that they would do anything to unite the community again. The bottom line is, Microsoft did the same thing they were doing more than 15 years ago. They forced the community into their “in-game match making system” without any social gaming features or the ability to chat and interact with each other. Even worse, they removed the ability to create LAN/IP games and “destroyed” all other community projects, including User Patch and Wololo Kingdoms. You already destroyed our Zone Village, isn’t it enough already? Read more

Buy the game Age of Empires II (2013) formerly known as AoE II HD on Steam. If you already own Age of Empires II – The Conquerors Expansion, you should purchase Age of Empires II Definitive Edition instead. After purchasing AoE II HD, you have to follow this article and if you already own AOC, you follow this article in order to get a working installation. Please follow the directions exactly on that page and you should have no problems getting started. Most common problems, if any, are fast proxy and disconnection issues which can be resolved easily. Play Patch 1.6

Version 111 (24/12/2020): First version installable by owning AoE II DE. Version 113 (25/12/2020): Added functionality where techs disapear when you click them, something not possible with the queue functionality. Version 115 (27/12/2020): Fixed a crash related to the auto reseeding farms functionality. Added color changing overlay. Fixed a bug where rams didn’t have the unload icon. Version 117 (31/12/2020): Hotkeys for technologies on Town Center, University, Blacksmith and Monastery. Added an AI that can play the new civilizations. Fixed a bug where icons were all messed up when not using “Regional Monks”. Fixed a bug where the trebuchet icon disapeared when clicking it. Fixed a bug regarding the use of population space by...

Community Patch v1.6 is the next iteration of the userpatches from Voobly. It adds new balance, new graphics, new maps and a lot more new features from AoE II Definitive Edition. It is a free-to-use mod available at the Voobly mod center.

As we’ve seen before, graphics in Age of Empires prior to Definitive Edition come in .slp files, either by themselves in the “drs” folder of the mod or compressed into a .drs file. To visualize them, we use Turtle Pack, but that program offers very little features in terms of edditing and, for the most part we use SLX Studio. You can find links to both programs in the introduction. Turtle Pack If you open an .slp file with turtle pack, you’ll see all its frames and for each frame, a couple of elements: The Anchor, that control where the graphic is displayed, to ensure that a unit’s graphic coincides with its phisical position in the game. The Selection mask, the overlay that appears when a unit goes behind a building. You can change...

Originally, the only unit that could regenerate health (appart from heroes) was the Berserk. This ability was controlled via resource 96. The value of that resource would control the regeneration speed of the Berserk. We’ve been able to activate that healing ability for other units but it comes with a problem: the regeneration speed is controlled by resource 96, which means that every unit with regenerating abilities would regenerate at the same rate. With the introduction of the Caravanserai, this poses a problem for a Viking player allied with a Hindustani. The code would modify the regeneration speed of Berserkers when using trade carts. With the introduction of Maghrebi Camels, the game has a new way of giving units regenerating...

As far as I’ve gathered, the original blast damage was hardcoded into the game and there is no way of modifying the damage it does. By original blast damage I mean the one done by units up to the Conquerors expansion: the Cataphract, the War Elephant and the Siege Weapons. For these units, we can change the radius of effect but not how much damage is dealt. Later on, in subsequent expansions, the field “Blast attack level” can be used to control how much damage units deal around them. This is used in Battle Elephants, Slavic Druzhina, Polish Lechitic Legacy and the Urumi Swordsman. This field gives different amounts of damage and units affected depending on the binary representation of the number, each bit controls a certain property...

Wololo Kingdoms DE is the first mod to have an adaptative version of Age of Mandala. As of April 2021, Definitive Edition seems to be working on a version of it. It seems a different implementation of what I’m explaining here, judging from the screenshots I’ve seen, and it’s currently only in the beta branch. We are going to look at the basic version of Age of Mandala and explain why it’s not possible to make it adaptative. Then we’ll see how Wololo Kingdoms DE handles the adaptative part. Basic Age of Mandala The first implementation of Age of Mandala, available in the mod center and that works on every version of the game, works by modifying the shadow of buildings. Usually the graphics of buildings is separated into two parts, the...

The queuable technologiess functionality was first introduced in Tech hotkeys and is probably one of the most clever things ever implemented. As any player from before Definitive Edition knows, it is possible to queue units but not technollogies. However, the units tab has a field called “Initiates technology” that at least can be used to keep track of the buildings required to age up. Most actual units whose production we can queue have this field disabled, all except for the Trebuchet. That’s the idea: creating a bunch of copies of the Trebuchet, that can be queued but also can be assigned a technology to research upon completion. Assigning each unit the icon, position in the menu, cost and research time of the technology it...

The new implementation of atheism, where enemy relics produce less gold, is very tricky to implement. The problem is that none of the available effects in Wololo Kingdoms DE are able to affect enemy players, only the player that research techs and in some cases their allies. In order to affect enemies, we need another way of interacting with them. The idea came to me after seing a pretty unknown mod: Panic mod. This mod adds a free technollogy that kills every enemy unit and damages castles. The interesting thing is its implementation. The panic button actually creates a demolition ship with -1 hit points, with a super high damage and blast radius. When this unit is created, it dies instantly, triggering an explosion that covers the...

This feature from Definitive Edition was added very late because we couldn’t copy the implementation done in the original game due to limitations on the user patch. Originally it was adapted to “Keshiks return gold when they die” and this is the base for the implementation we finally got. The credit of this idea goes to GorLeon. Madrasah Madrasah is the saracen unique tech that makes monks return gold when they die. Let’s see how it works. If we filter technologies through civilization 9 we find Madrasah is number 490 with effect 545. Its only relevant command is the first one, upgrade unit 134 into unit 936. These two units are monk corpses that stay in the ground and disapear after a while. Their only difference is in the resource...

Another implementation worth explaining for later on, when we reuse it for Burgundians and Sicilians, and because it takes a while to unravel without help. Here we are going to look at the extra villagers or llama Chinese, Mayans and Incas get, and how the Tatar bonus is also an implementation of the first idea. Since these bonuses are related to the town center, let’s look at it in the code. If you write “town center” in the filter box, you get 20 different units. There are actually 5 town center versions for each age, you can read this page to learn more about how it works. The unit that interests us is number 109, the dark age town center, the one where villagers and techs are created. If we scroll down to the “Annex units” section...

I’m assuming you are familiar with how damage is calculated in Age of Empires II. For extra reference, see this page. Implementing attack and armors is very simple and also allows for a lot of fine tuning. In the units tab you can see two lists, “Attacks” and “Armors”, displaying all the varios armor classes a unit does damage against or has. Appart from those there is the field “Shown Attack”, “Shown Melee Armor” and “Shown Pierce Armor”, for the stats you see in the game. Also note “Base armor”, a default armor for when the game doesn’t find the class in the list on the left; it’s value is very high so that every attack that shouldn’t produce damage, indeed doesn’t. Among the Attacks and Armors, you will usually find type 3 and 4...

After seing how to have fishermen droping food at Docks, one can easily predict what we should change in order to have Khmer farmers not use drop site. Indeed, if for the farmers, units 214 and 259 we select civilization Khmer, we can see that, as dropsites they have the Town Center and themselves. Contrary to what happened for the Dock, having the Town Center doesn’t disturb the villagers from droping food on themselves. Setting the drop site requires deactivating all checkboxes in the top part of the units tab, so that the change only affects Khmer. However, this is not the end of the story. If we want to replicate the balance of Definitive Edition as faithfully as possible, we need to check the gather rate. To do so, I first run...

This one is a more simple functionality of the game but that I consider worth mentioning as it took me a while to figure out and it will be useful when we talk about the Flemish revolution. As we can see by filtering only civilian units, Class 4, there is a different unit for every variation of the villager. If we check the “Tasks” section, at the bottom of the units tab, we can see that each variation of the villager has a task related to a resource. For the most part they use action “Gather/Rebuild” on farms, mines, bushes, etc. Having different versions for each villager allows civilization bonuses like the celt or the slav to affect only a speciffic version of the villager. Now, how does the game change a villager into a...

Now that we have seen how to upgrade units, let’s see how this is used to implement the new feature where fishermen can use docks and explain a problem that arises. Villager drop sites Let’s first understand how a villager drops resources. Go to the Units tab and, from the filter menu, select “Class”. Now, in the dialogue box write “C 4,”. This filters unit from class 4, that corresponds to civilian units. Now you should see the different variations of villagers. One of the fields in the units tab are the ones called “Drop sites”, there are two of them: the first one is always the Town Center and the second one the specific for that resource. For the case of original fishermen, units 56 and 57, the second building is the Mill...

The concept of upgrading units is very simple at first glance but, in some cases, it can be quite messy. Let’s look first at a very simple example. Effect 211 upgrades Militia into Man at arms, specifically the first command, the others are not relevant at this point. Following the Militia line, effect 182 upgrades into Two-handed swordsman. The first command upgrades Militia and the second one the Man at arms. Now, one could ask, why do we need two commands? If in order to research Two-handed swordsman, one has to research Man at arms, by the time you get to the second tech, all Militias are already Man at arms. Turns out that the game works the opposite way: all the Men at arms you are about to upgrade are still Millitias for the...

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Armor classes are the base to control damage in the game, both the basic melee and range and all the bonus damage combinations. Most of the classes include a description in the Advanced Genie Editor but we’ve created a lot more so I thought it best to list all the existing ones for reference purposes. 0. Unused. The Wonder has this armor for some discarded bonus. Infantry units. Turtle Ships. Turtle Ships and Thirisadais have the armor. Fire ships have the attack. Base pierce damage of non mounted units. Base melee damage of non mounted units. Elephants. Extra cavalry class to combine the Bohemian bonus damage and Sicilian and Bengali bonus resistance. Extra elephant class for damage against Bengali elephants. Read here. Cavalry...

This is just a list of the resources we’ve introduced in the game for various purposes, as a way of keeping a log: Resource 214. Control free Kipchaks with Cuman mercenaries. Resource 215. Controls Fishermen and Fishing ships productivity. Resource 216. Controls Sheperds productivity. Resource 218. Controls Feudal Cuman Town Centers. Resources 219 to 285. Controls queuable technologies. Resource 286. Controls Poles stone miners and Vietnamese lumberjacks. Resources 287 and 288. Controls First Crusade Serjeants. Resource 289 and 290. Controls queuable ages, not implemented right now. Resource 291. For detecting Strongholds and Chieftains and apply the new effects. Resource 292. Controls Hunters productivity.

This is where you edit the graphics, animations and assing sounds to them. As with the units tab, most of the fields have explanations on what they are for so you shouldn’t have much troubles. In case of doubt, check an already working unit. Worth mentioning is the mirror mode field. If you check any unit graphic from Wololo Kingdoms DE with TurtlePack, you will see that they only face left. Right versions of the graphics are obtained by reflecting the ones from the left. Definitive Edition has different graphics for each angle but the original version uses mirror mode to save space. Another detail is the two sound fields, one in the top of the tab and the other in the “Angle Sounds” sections. The first one plays the sound regardless...

This is where you edit everything related to the ingame units. By units we refer to actual soldiers, buildings, animals, proyectiles, trees, decorative elements and even invisible units that are used to trigger effects. This tab is the more complex one but, luckily, it’s the best documented one. The fields that have an asterisk (*) sign next to them will display some information about what the field is for. This is how we discovered about the charging ability, for example. The icons for the units are stored in “50706.slp” for buildings (type 80) and “50730.slp” for actual units (type 70). This second file also includes tech icons due to the queuing techs functionality. One thing worth mentioning before getting into modifying stuff in...

This is where you edit the effects technologies produce. An effect is made of several commands that modify some aspects of the units or technologies. The most relevant field in this tab is the Command Type, where you select what command to add to the effect. Let’s go over them: Atribute modifier (Set). This allows to modify atributes of individual units or clases of them, like the hit points, the speed, the cost, the training time, etc. Through this effect you set a new value for the atribute. Resource modifier (Set/+/-). This allows to modify resources of the game such as wood and food or the rate at which relics genrate gold. Depending on the mode you choose, you can either set a new value or modify the existing one by adding...

The Techs Tab This is where you edit the technologies in the game. There are two types of technologies that you can create: Technologies with zero research time. You research these technologies automatically when you meet their “Required techs” conditions, without considering the cost. For example, technology 25, “STBL (make avail)” allows you to create stables. It requires two technologies: “Feudal Age” and “Shadow Node Barracks + Khmer”, a technology that is researched when you build a Barracks or are Khmer (since they don’t need pre-requisite buildings). Technologies with positive research time. You research these technologies by clicking the icon and paying its cost. They are only available once their “Required Techs” are met. For...

I reiterate again: I’m not an expert in AGE and only know about what I’ve discovered. If at some point I skip some button or field, it’s most likely because I don’t know what it does or have never needed to investigate it. You know where to contact me to add stuff. How to open AGE When you open Advanced Genie Editor, you will see an open window with several fields to fill. Here are the ones that are actually relevant: Genie version. Which version of the game you are working on. WololoKingdoms DE uses The Conquerors but you may also use Age of Empires II: HD or Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition if you are modding for that game. Compressed data set (*.dat). Path to the file “empires2_x1_p1.dat” in your mod folder. Language file...

Introduction The code inside Age of Empires 2 is a mess. I understand budget and time limitations when the game was released but, in the time since, no one has sat down to clean the code. If you look around a little in the data file of the game, you will find animations that are never used, civilization bonuses that do nothing and even things actually in the game but with different names. In summary: be prepared for frustration, for having to backtrack thorught the code several times until understanding how something works and for finding nonsense. The best advice I can give you, that also served me, is to look for similar implementations to discover how they work. If you want to create a bonus that stacks through the ages, check how...

This guide uses as examples the Advanced Genie Editor codes from Wololo Kingdoms DE. Most of those codes are the same for Community Patch 1.6 except for things speciffic for Definitive Edition civilizations that have been deleted for that mod. Author: [email protected] Foreword Back in march 2020 I had no idea how to create mods. I have a basic understanding of programming and assumed that there was a big file somewhere storing unit stats, technologies and so on. With that knowledge, I assumed that adding balance changes like +1 armor for certain units or faster research time for a technology had to be easy. During that time, Europe was going through the worst of the covid pandemic and several countries, mine included, where on...