Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition New Update Brings Gameplay Improvements to Return of Rome

Have trouble battling against the AI in the Return of Rome expansion of Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition? If so, get Hotfix 85614 for a plethora of gameplay improvements, some of which tackle AI difficulty.

The developers rebalanced AI difficulty in the Return of Rome, making it now easier to defeat on lower difficulty levels. This is great, especially if you want to breeze through the content and get right to the meat of the story.

In terms of AI fixes, the issue where the "Extreme" difficulty AI gets its soldiers stuck at an enemy wall has now been fixed. Furthermore, the bug that caused the AI to go berserk and fail to stop attacking when desired has been resolved.

Changelog

Base Game

• Addressed issues with units sliding backwards while attacking.
• Fixed an issue where the Custom Scenario filter option did not show up in the Lobby & Spectator Browsers.
• Fixed an issue where the Grey AI player would instantly get defeated at the start of the second Hautevilles scenario.
• Fixed an issue where the Back to Work command did not reliably send villagers back to the last task assigned.
• Fixed an issue where villagers which were luring a boar were walking needlessly curved/zagged paths.
• Fixed an issue where grouped units could turn immobile temporarily.
• Fixed an issue where monks could sometimes walk forward after a successful conversion.
• Fixed an issue where ranged units would occasionally walk forward instead of shooting visible enemy units.
• Fixed an issue where Caravanserais unintentionally healed additional types of units, rather than just trade carts.
• Fixed an issue with monks sometimes not healing nearby units when idle.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when opening AoE II: DE links for spectating.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when setting hotkeys.
• Fixed an issue where only up to 4 units were released upon the death of the unit they were garrisoned in (ex: Siege Tower).
• Fixed an issue where the player dropdown menu and score did not update properly when spectating.

Return of Rome

• Fixed issues where the Escape key would not fully function in the Lobby Browser and Spectate Games tabs.
• Fixed an issue where the Persian tech tree would show that they could make chariots.
• Fixed an issue where AI player transport behavior would be incorrectly disabled.
• Fixed localized voice over issues with the Pyrrhus campaign.
• Fixed an issue where in-game sounds could become muffled.
• Fixed an issue where the population cap of the 4th Pyrrhus campaign mission, Savior of the Greeks, was higher than intended.
• Fixed an issue where most Watch Towers didn't show fire particles when controlled by an enemy.
• D3 mode now allows Solid Farms to be toggled off.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition Hotfix 85614 is available on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC