Below is a list of known issues we are tracking for Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition. Note that this is not a comprehensive list; we will continue to update it with new issues as they are reported and fixed, will only include the most visible or disruptive issues that prevent you from enjoying the game, and will never include exploits that could be leveraged to gain an unfair advantage over other players.
If you encounter a bug that is not listed below, take a moment to contact our Support team or visit the official Age of Empires forum and report the problem:
- Visit the official Age of Empires Forum.
- Click 'Report a Bug' in the Age of Empires III category.
- ALWAYS search the sub-forum for similar issues before creating a new post.
- If the issue has already been reported, add a comment to the existing thread.
- If the issue has not been reported, start a new thread.
- Read up on How to Report a Bug or Exploit to make sure you have everything you need to post about an issue.
- Click Create Topic to finish creating your thread!
Thank you for taking the time to help keep our game clean and bug-free! We will try to update this list each month, as well as provide solutions to any new issues over on the official forum.
This page was last updated on June 10th, 2021.
ISSUE STATUS KEY
Issues have been marked with a status that best represents their current state:
A tracked bug means that it has been reproduced by our test team. The team now has to determine whether and how they solve the issue: whether it requires a fix, a change to the design or code of the game, or if there are other solutions that need to be considered.
| STATUS: Fix Awaiting Update |
Once a fix has been identified, it needs to be tested and packaged with a game update. Note that this is not always the very next update: a fix may be held for additional testing or to be paired with other similar fixes.
Once the fix is available in the game, we'll check things off of the list. Eventually, these items will be hidden to make way for other issues as they are identified, tracked, and prioritized.
TRACKED (KNOWN) ISSUES
These are issues which have been reported and reproduced by our Quality Assurance (or Test) team. Issues are listed in the areas of the game they impact, below, and in no particular order.
CROSSPLAY
| HOTFIX 30181 temporarily disables cross-play |
| Hotfix 30181 was released for Steam on June 10th. Until it is released for the Microsoft Store, cross-play will be temporarily unavailable. |
| STATUS: Fix Awaiting Update |
GAME
| Chat rooms may appear empty in the chat browser even when others are present. |
| There is no workaround at this time. |
| STATUS: Tracking |
| Online Lobbies appear in the Lobby Browser after toggling ‘Multiplayer’ to ‘LAN’. |
| There is no workaround at this time. |
| STATUS: Tracking |
GAMEPLAY
| Hotkeys resetting |
|
This is a known issue and is under investigation.
|
| STATUS: Tracking |
| Attack-Move Optimization and Fixes |
| A prevalent topic of discussion, the team is continuing their investigation and looking into solutions to ensure that it performs as expected in all circumstances. |
| STATUS: Tracking |
| The game suffers from an FPS drop when playing 4v4 using the ‘Fast’ speed. |
| 4v4 is possible, but has issues when playing on the ‘Fast’ speed setting. It is recommended that you play at the ‘Normal’ speed unit this can be addressed. |
| STATUS: Tracking |
| Chinese "Villages" that are under attack will show the number of attackers as current gatherers on the building. |
| There is no workaround at this time |
| STATUS: Tracking |
| Russian card "Dueling School" message in the chat still refers to TEAM while it's no longer a team card. |
| There is no workaround at this time |
| STATUS: Tracking |
| Spanish card "Advanced Trading Post" does not allow Trading Posts to attack while playing on South American maps with Inca trade routes. |
| There is no workaround at this time |
| STATUS: Tracking |
AI
| AI is inconsistent when the player asks them to tribute resources or if the player contributes resources to the AI. |
| There is no workaround at this time |
| STATUS: Tracking |
| If the AI revolts while building, it still attempts to build with the transformed villagers. |
| There is no workaround at this time |
| STATUS: Tracking |
CAMPAIGN
| The objective counter for Colonies Raided 0/5 does not increase after destroying all of the military units occupying the Northern colony. |
| Some of the units have shifted to the long, central island, just North of the Colony closest to the center of the map. Defeating these stranded units will increment the Objective counter and trigger the destruction of some buildings within the North Colony. |
| STATUS: Tracking |
FIXED ISSUES
These are issues which we presume to be fixed as of a recent update. If you continue to encounter the issue, please visit the official Age of Empires forum or Contact our Support team to report your experience:
| Game defaults to English language when the game region is set to Chinese. |
| Fixed in Hotfix 1 |
| FIXED |
| HUD disappears when clicking “View Map” on the statistics screen after a game has ended. |
| Fixed in Update 3552 |
| FIXED |
| Scrolling in the lobby browser returns the user to the top of the page. |
| Fixed in Update 3552 |
| FIXED |
| Reporting a Lobby prevents the player from interacting with the report UI. |
| Fixed in Update 3552 |
| FIXED |
| Selection box can cause performance issues in certain languages. |
| Fixed in Update 5208 |
| FIXED |
| Issues with several cutscenes not playing. |
| Fixed in Update 5208 |
| FIXED |
| Cannot re-bind camera movement to other keys. |
| Fixed in Update 5208 |
| FIXED |
| Completing the “Pirates!” mission moves to the Asian Dynasties campaign. |
| Fixed in Update 5208 |
| FIXED |
| Livestock rallies to the Town Center. |
| Fixed in Update 5208 |
| FIXED |
| “File transfer failed. Please ensure free disk space before retrying.” message when starting a multiplayer match even when enough disk space is available. |
| Fixed in Hotfix 6847 |
| FIXED |
| Asian Dynasties progress being reset. |
| This issue has been resolved. |
| FIXED |
| Leaderboard does not display Page 2. |
| Fixed in Update 9476 |
| FIXED |
| CRASH! When loading the Silk Road or Lrg Silk Road map with at least 1 AI player. |
| Fixed in Update 9476 |
| FIXED |
| Art of War missions do not display/play localized text or VO. |
| Fixed in Update 9476 |
| FIXED |
| In rare circumstances, players may receive a 'Connection Lost, Exiting Game" message joining a ranked game in a party. |
| Fixed in Update 14825 |
| FIXED |
| After adding a card to a deck, removing an upgrade card will instead remove the card next to it. |
| Fixed in Update 14825 |
| FIXED |
| Unable to open game |
|
Fixed in Hotfix 21704. If you continue to have issues opening the game from the Microsoft Store, please reach out to Support.
|
| FIXED |
| Steam users who sign into Xbox Live will see a button to send Xbox Live invites which then display an error message when pressed |
| Fixed in Update 23511 |
| FIXED |
| When playing a campaign, new cards chosen upon finishing a scenario are not adding to the deck |
| Fixed in Update 23511 |
| FIXED |
| No sound while clicking on buttons in main menu |
| Fixed in Hotfix 24632 |
| FIXED |
| Stuck Units |
|
The team believes it has fixed the route cause of various pathfinding issues in Update 26865, including:
- Units becoming stuck in buildings.
- Unit groups becoming stuck in Trading Posts.
- Livestock moving into Trading Posts making them impossible to gather.
|
| FIXED |
| Challenge progress reset after Update 26865 |
|
US Civ challenge progress has been restored for most players in Hotfix 27330 and Hotfix 27812. If there is still missing progress in your game, please contact our Support team and we will work with you to get it back.
|
| FIXED |
| Cannot copy another player’s deck(s) when playing as the same civilization. |
| Fixed in Update 29715 |
| FIXED |
| Accepting a Steam invitation to a ranked game lobby will launch the game but fail to place you in the lobby |
| Fixed in Update 29715 |
| FIXED |
| When using mods, lobbies that do not share the exact same mods will not be displayed. |
|
Behavior changed in Update 29715. A new icon will indicate which mods are “safe for multiplayer”, meaning that a player with the mod can be matched against others without it enabled.
|
| FIXED |
