Microsoft and Relic have officially confirmed that the first major update of Age of Empires 4 will be launched next week, the latest exponent of the well-known real-time strategy series. The update will mark the debut of one of the most anticipated news from the community.
We are referring to the Seasons, which make their debut with this update, and with Season 2 starting in the coming months. Upon the arrival of the major update “Festival of Ages”, Ranked Seasons will be introduced to host competitive multiplayer and seasonal events that will have rewards for unique and rotating challenges.
The first ranked season will run for 12 weeks. Players will need to complete five placement matches to determine their rank, and then move up from Bronze to Diamond, with the ultimate goal of achieving the Conqueror rank. By ranking in a specific position, players will receive Monuments for their city, as well as badges and portraits to view via the player profile.
The update will also introduce a content editor, which will launch in beta and will allow players to create their own maps, tweak individual options to their liking, balance units in any way they like, and merge different mods together.
Finally, the game will receive some quality of life improvements and some general balance changes. There is no detailed information on these aspects, but Relic will be back to tell us about them with the arrival of the update itself.