Relic Entertainment is set to unleash a new patch for Age of Empires IV tomorrow, June 15, in celebration of the game's upcoming season. The Season Five update will introduce a long-requested feature: Voice Chat.
Age of Empires IV can get pretty busy, especially in the late game. So, usually players no longer have time to type on their keyboards to communicate with their teammates, which may result in poorly coordinated attacks. The good news is that they won't have to suffer further as the upcoming update will bring the highly-requested voice chat feature.
When the update goes live, voice chat is enabled by default. For those who don't want to use this feature, there are a couple of ways to disable it. First, they can head to the "Online" section of the settings menu and toggle the option to turn voice chat off. Second, while in a match, navigate to the Player List menu and select the voice chat toggle located at the top of the pop-up window.
Learn more about Age of Empires IV voice chat here.
Voice chat is not the only thing that players can expect in the Season Five update. It also includes the following features:
- New game mode: Empire Wars
- Empire Wars is a new, quick-to-action game mode for Age of Empires IV. Players start their game with a burgeoning empire, ready to dive into combat or advance to the next Age!
- Available in custom and skirmish games, the player starts with a variety of buildings alongside a distribution of working villagers which creates a foothold on the map for players to expand from. Villagers will already be busy working farms, chopping trees, and mining gold and stone.
- New Maps
- Golden Heights
- Opposing factions settle beneath a cliff shimmering in gold, and fertile pond beyond.
- Migration
- While initially safe, players must soon migrate to more prosperous lands for both space and resources.
- Volcanic Island
- With stone scattered around in the shallows, the once fire-breathing mountain has since overgrown with lush vegetation and now awaits to be conquered.
- Golden Heights
- 4K HDR Video Pack
- Four of the 4K videos included in the optional free Age of Empires IV: 4K HDR Video Pack have been replaced with their 1080p counterparts due to photosensitivity concerns. All other videos in the pack remain the same. Impacted videos include:
- The Norman Legacy
- Legacy of the Mongols
- War's End
- Swords & Sabers
- Four of the 4K videos included in the optional free Age of Empires IV: 4K HDR Video Pack have been replaced with their 1080p counterparts due to photosensitivity concerns. All other videos in the pack remain the same. Impacted videos include:
Will you be using voice chat in Age of Empires IV when it becomes available?
