Season One Update – Mongols
The first major update of 2022 brings Ranked Seasons, the Content Editor beta (and Mods!), Seasonal Events, Major Balance changes, as well as a ton of quality-of-life changes to Age of Empires IV.
Core Units
Field construction time increased from 30 to 80 seconds
Field construction time increased from 40 to 80 seconds
Field construction time increased from 35 to 80 seconds
Developer note
"Siege weapons are frequently built by many infantry at the same time in the field. We wanted to add more time here to give opponents an adequate chance at counter play."
Economy
Hunting bow reload time reduced from 2 to 1 second
Melee weapon cool down reduced from 4 to 2 seconds
Melee weapon damage reduced from 4 to 2
Developer note
"We found scout attack times to feel too long and unresponsive. This is especially noticeable in the early stages of the game when unit counts are lower."
Villager hunted meat carry capacity increased from 10 to 25
Hunted meat harvest rate increased from 10% to 15%
Research time reduced from 75 to 45 seconds
Hunted meat carry capacity bonus removed
Developer note
"We’re aim to encourage earlier game deer play to reward players for being out on the map."
Naval
Arrow ships can no longer fire while moving
Improved the responsiveness of small and medium ships
Updated the selection area for all fishing deposits to match the visual. This also resolves issues where deep fish became harder to select as the resource was depleted.
Galley, Dhow and Junk help text updated to specifically indicate they benefit from ranged damage Blacksmith technology
Developer note
"Engaging in naval battles was very swingy as once a player started losing it was difficult to retreat against fire while moving boats. We’re also hoping to see more tactical poke and retreat style feigns and harassment."
Research time reduced from 75 to 45 seconds
Research time reduced from 75 to 45 seconds
Developer note
"Between making more fishing boats and researching, the dock had to choose between these economic techs that took so long. It was generally better just to make more fishing boats. Reducing the research time makes these techs enticing earlier in the match."
Can no longer fire while moving
Ranged armor reduced by 1
Developer note
"Attack ships are designed to counter arrowships. However we felt the armor was so extreme of a counter it felt ineffective and unfun to engage in these naval battles."
Warship formation spacing reduced from 4.5 to 3 tiles
Weapon range reduced from 9 to 8 tiles
Developer note
"We want to give land units and defenses more opportunity to return fire against naval units. It’s not satisfying for a boat to out range your defenses and kill them without taking any damage. Having both sides take some damage creates a more interesting back and forth dynamic between players that adds strategy and micro into the mix."
Rams can no longer target naval units
Developer note
"While this was a bug fix, we received player feedback about how it added a fun dynamic to the game. We’ll look into readjusting in the future."
Core Buildings & Upgrades
Buildings under construction receive 50% more damage
Developer note
"Players were dropping buildings in the middle of battles and there wasn’t any way to stop it. We’ve added this damage penalty to in progress buildings to add more risk and counterplay to these strategies to even out how powerful they are."
Stone Wall Tower build time increased from 60 to 90 seconds
Stone Wall Tower cost increased from 200 to 300 stone
Developer note
"These changes together are specifically targeted at weakening feudal age stone wall tower rushes as it’s difficult to get enough army together in time to prevent them."
Movement speed bonus reduced from 20% to 15%
Moved from the University to the Siege Workshop
Cost reduced from 300 Wood, 700 Gold to 100 Wood, 225 Gold
Research time reduced from 90 to 45 seconds
Developer note
"As geometry only affects 2 units that only damage buildings, we found the steep cost wasn’t justified and limited the intended scaling of late game rams."
Moved from the Siege Workshop to the University
Cost increased from 150 Wood, 350 Gold to 300 Wood, 700 Gold
Research time increased from 60 to 90 seconds
Developer note
"As university holds powerful technologies that affect entire classes of units, it was a much better fit for this technology."
Cost increased from 500 Stone to 1000 Stone
Can now research Geometry (instead of University)
Can no longer research Siege Works (use University instead)
Now correctly provides 30 stone per minute instead of 15
Other bug fixes
Repair ability now shows the correct requirements when attempting to use it on an enemy player
Attempting to observe a modded game when you do not have the same mods enables should no longer result in a crash
Improvements made to sheep to allow for easier selection
Selection tool should now prioritize siege unit selection over building selection when the unit overlaps with a building
Mongols
New Improved Technology: Textiles (Improved) has been added to the Town Center, available in the Castle Age
Textiles (Improved) increases the health of Villagers by +50
Developer note
"This is intended to help Mongols defend from raids later in the game as they have no keeps or walls."
Now only provides +10% health instead of +15%, for a total of +30% instead of +35%
Developer note
"This is consistent with other Mongol stone upgrades that provide a 50% increased bonus over the base upgrade."
Fixed a bug where Mongol Tithe Barns research time was 80s instead of the intended 60s. It also gives the proper +30 Food, Wood, and Stone instead of +20
Fixed a bug where Mongol Improved Tithe Barns did not list the correct resource income
Produces Mangudai in 90 seconds instead of 77 seconds
The Landmark Town Center can now be packed while at maximum population
Stone Commerce help text updated to specify trade bonus
The Khan Defense Arrow tool tip updated to show correct bonus of +2
Field constructed Traction Trebuchets now have the correct tool tip
Showing notes for the 
Mongols. Other patch notes are hidden.