Hello, good day, and happy March, trailblazers! We’re back with new and wild frontiers for you to explore in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition!

This month’s release heralds a massive list of improvements to the game: with fixes and new features, tweaks to every playable civ in the game, and a ton of quality-of-life additions to keep things fresh! Here’s a small taste of what’s in store:

• NEW! Resources per Minute can now be toggled and displayed in the UI!

• NEW! View the range of your units with a new Attack Range Indicator option!

• Player Civilization Flags are now displayed on the in-game scoreboard

• Loads of stability and performance improvements, particularly for low-end machines

• UI updates GALORE, including a new chat system and numerous tech tree overhauls

• Improved invite system for inviting your friends, recent friends, clan friends, and cross-platform friends!

• Significant overhaul to the modding system, including the ability to use certain mods in ranked matches and custom games

• …and so much more!

The team’s focus is very much on improving the quality of life of the game while ensuring that it is more and more accessible to a larger audience, and this release takes some big steps in that direction. Where do we go from here? Well, we’ve got some really exciting stuff happening behind-the-scenes that we can’t wait to share with you, and (as always), we’re following your conversations and commentary over on our official channels:

💬 DISCUSS: Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition Forum
🗣 JOIN: The Age of Empires Official Discord
Keep that discussion coming, enjoy today’s release, let us know what you think, and we’ll see you on the battlefield!

—The Age of Empires Team

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###          ◆ UPDATE 20322 ◆  

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BUILD SPOTLIGHT

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While there are plenty of notable fixes and features to which to look forward in today’s build, here are some of the big highlights coming with this month’s update:

NEW! Resources per Minute

Next to your total resources, you will now be able to see your resource gain per minute, which includes gathered resources and trade. This is compatible with all provided HUD layouts, and can be enabled or disabled via the UI Options menu.

NEW! Attack Range Indicator

A new unit attack range indicator can now be enabled or disabled in the UI options, and will allow you to see the attack radius of your military units! You can show the radius when:

• Hovering over a Unit

• Selecting a Single Unit

• Holding ALT when a Group of units is selected

Any, all, or none of the options can be toggled to your liking in the options menu!

Player Civilization Flags

A long-standing ask since the game’s release, we’re excited to slip civilization flags into the scoreboard with this latest release! No more guessing everyone’s civilization!

GAME

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Stability & Performance

We’ve implemented several performance optimizations targeted at improving the experience when running the game on older hardware. This includes:

• Animation calculations

• Minor adjustments to the appearance of water

• GPU performance improvements on low-end hardware

Other game stability and performance improvements:

• Fixed two issues with the bar files which would cause downloads to take significantly longer than intended. Download times should be massively improved from this point forward.

• Fixed several crashes that could occur when closing the game.

• Fixed a crash in the Scenario Editor.

• Fixed an issue where “missing dll” errors could appear when launching the game on a fresh Windows install.

• Moved some files and folders which were being erroneously written to the folder where Steam installs the game rather than the user Save folder.

• Civilizations will no longer vanish from the selection UI if a saved Home City file is corrupted.

• Fixed an issue where a single active tech could be written multiple times to a Home City file, resulting in the slowdown of the game.

• Fixed a crash when closing a chat that wasn’t the most recent in the list.

• Fixed a crash when destroying too many objects at once.

Achievements

• The “Alliance” achievement can now be earned by completing the stated objectives.

• The “We Need More Wood” and “Animal Hunter” achievements now display the correct progress in the Steam client.

Graphics

• Improved the rendering speed of the Main Menu and in-game Home City screens.

• Disabled the contact shadows of grass when grass is not enabled.

• Fixed an issue where animated models, trees, and bushes would not work as intended with the temporal anti-aliasing setting, resulting in a “blurry” look.

• Fixed an issue where the game window would appear blurry when manually adjusting its size or swapping between resolutions.

• Adjusted some bounding box issues to prevent assets from unexpectedly popping out of Home Cities at certain camera angles.

Audio

• The ♪ Japanese Civilization ♪ jingle now plays when intended.

• The fireworks upgrade in the Chinese Home City have been enhanced with explosive sound effects.

UI

• Added 40 new profile images to the weekly profile rotation.

• Added a new interface which supports cross-platform invites to multiplayer games.

• You can now whisper other users via the context menu, in the lobby, or during a game. Messages will appear as a tab in the Chat Browser menu; you can also prevent messages by right-clicking a user and muting them via the context menu.

• Added messaging and iconography to the Mods menu to denote when mods are in need of updates or maintenance. More details about this improvement can be found in the 'Modding' section, below.

• Added button highlights to the Player Summary and Diplomacy menus as visual feedback when accessed.

• Added Compendium text for the Nizam Fusilier.

• Updated the Compendium text for the Tribal Marketplace.

• Updated numerous outdated descriptions in the Compendium.

• Updated the History section of the Tokala Soldier by replacing references to its pre-DE name (“Dog Soldier”).

• Updated the text of the High Priest of Ixtilton card to clarify that the Nobles’ Hut can be used to train Jaguar Prowl Knights in the Commerce Age after shipping the card.

• The game now remembers when you select a random Home City so it can default to the same option in consecutive matches.

• The Home City displayed on the main menu will now update to match the randomly-selected Home City rolled during a match.

• Clicking to move certain military units near trees should no longer result in adjacent trees flashing or arrows appearing at their base.

• The Revolution command button now shows the Age 4 icon as a prerequisite to the revolt.

• Updated the Bombard Brawl challenge screen and leaderboards to display properly on ultrawide resolutions.

• Updated the Bombard Brawl leaderboard to clarify that it only displays the scores of your friends.

• Updated the Bombard Brawl ending screen to display the latest score rather than the highest achieved score.

• Fixed an error which would prevent the leaderboard from populating more than 200 entries. The full list of player rankings are now available (both in-game and on the website).

• AI names are now displayed correctly when playing a custom scenario in Skirmish mode.

• The Search and Cancel buttons on the Ranked menu will no longer appear cropped when hovering over them with the mouse.

• Adjusted the layout of the in-game score panel to avoid cutting off extremely long numbers.

• Updated the tooltip text of Urumi units to explain their idle hit-point regeneration.

• Corrected tooltips that appear over the resource display panel UI.

• Added additional context to the tooltip when password-protecting a game lobby.

• Added a missing tooltip to the Clear button in the deck builder.

• Removed placeholder text from the tooltips that appear over the counters for tasked and idle Villagers, as well as buildings like the Community Plaza.

• Fixed a string reference for the Camera Shake feature in the game options menu.

• Fixed an issue where certain models—particularly ships—could be difficult to select while in the process of being destroyed due to the incorrect calculation of their collision box.

• Fixed an issue where the Quit/Restart/Resign overlays could not be closed by pressing Escape, which would instead open the game menu behind the overlay.

• Fixed UI clipping on buttons in the Ranked Matchmaking menu.

• Fixed text clipping in the Skirmish setup drop-down box.

Additional context has been added to the technology tree for techs with Home City Card prerequisites. This includes:

• Advanced Arsenal

• City Defense

• Edict of Nantes

• Enlist Irregulars

• New Ways

• Palace Intrigue

• Reformist Tsar

• Religious Freedom

• Royal Decree to Claim the New World

• Sentry Revolt

• The Glorious Revolution

• Treaty of Roskilde

• Treaty of Tordesillas

• Treaty of Westphalia

• Village Defenses

Other updates to the technology tree:

• Fixed instances of text clipping in the Campaign and Regular technology trees.

• Fixed an inapplicable use of the War Song image in the Aztec technology tree.

• Fixed the image reference for the Lakota, Haudenosaunee, and Aztec technologies to display the correct images.

• Knighthood now displays as a prerequisite to the Peerage technology in European civ technology trees.

• Updated outdated text for the Revolution upgrade in European technology trees.

• Moved the Bastion technology from Age 2 ▶ Age 3 to reflect recent balance changes.

• Removed Community Plaza cards from the Inca technology tree which displayed the incorrect training values.

Hotkeys

• Added hotkeys for “Send Flare” (default: ALT + Left Mouse) and “Enter Flare Mode” (default: ALT+F; unbound in legacy mode).

• Added the ability to use modifier keys such as CTRL, ALT, and SHIFT with mouse button bindings. (It is a known issue that you cannot currently bind with the left or right mouse button.)

GAMEPLAY

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General

• The Bombard Brawl challenge can no longer be started while the game is offline.

Two new, persistent challenges have been added that can be completed at any time and unlock two new profile images:

• Win Christopher De Gama’s Expedition in the Historical Battles on the Hard difficulty.

• Revolt to the South Africans and win a Skirmish or Multiplayer game.

See if you can complete the challenge and add the new icons to your collection!

Fixes

• Fixed an issue where Bombards would fail to make an appearance at the start of the Bombard Brawl scenario.

• Fixed an issue on the Amazonia map where cliff terrain could prevent the construction of certain Trading Posts when playing with more than two players.

• Control-group selection is now disabled when the “Delete units/building?” confirmation dialogue is open to prevent the deletion of the wrong units.

• The text-to-voice narration will no longer repeat (and repeat and repeat) the number of Home City shipments available when hovering over the button.

• When the Initial Resources option is set to Infinite, the resource totals will now be displayed as ∞. Resources will actually be infinite (rather than being a very, very large number), and resources gained will not add to the player’s total score in this mode.

CAMPAIGN

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Art of War

• Artillery: Corrected an issue which could cause the camera to get stuck after a cinematic in the mission.

Campaign Missions

• Fire & Shadow (Act II): Will no longer display 100% completion before finishing the final scenario of the campaign.

CIVILIZATION BALANCE

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[/hr]This update brings a supply train full of updates to every civilization. Whilst a large number of changes are targeted at the Supremacy game mode, just as many aim to smooth out imbalances between civilizations in the late-game.

General

• Half Crates: Fixed an issue which would prevent idle Villagers from collecting half crates.

🡒 UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Church & Mosque: Reduced construction time from 25 ▶ 20 seconds.

• Llanero (Gran Colombia Revolution): Now properly tagged as Hand Cavalry.

Several adjustments have been made to the Native Scout:

• Now have a build limit of 5.

• The Advanced Scouts (III) card now, in addition to its previous benefits, grants +20 to their build limit.

🡒 UPGRADES

• Spirit Medicine (I): Now properly improves the Native Villager’s spear attack.

🡒 CARDS

• Advanced Dock (I): Fixed a bug where European and Native American Docks would only gain +50% bonus damage, while Asian Docks gained the full +100% bonus damage. ALL Docks are now properly granted +100% bonus damage by the upgrade.

• Native Warrior Combat (III) ▶ Native Warrior Combat (II). Lowered the attack and health bonus granted to Native Warriors from 20% ▶ 15%.

• TEAM Native Warrior Combat (II) ▶ TEAM Native Warrior Combat (I). Lowered the attack and health bonus granted to Native Warriors from 15% ▶ 10%.

The Aztecs

Near the top of the 1v1 ranked ladder are the Aztecs, who have maintained a high win-percentage since launch. At the heart of their success is an overwhelming reliance on “The Messenger” council member to quickly advance to the Commerce Age. The following changes aim to encourage more variety in early Aztec gameplay while granting greater strategic flexibility later on—as it should now be more desirable to select other Council Members and “save” The Messenger for later in a game.🡒 CIVILIZATION
The following Tribal Council members now take 70 seconds to advance from Age 1 to Age 2 (reduced from 90 seconds):

• The Wise Woman: 1 Farm Travois, 10% Farm and Estate gathering speed

• The Warrior: 2 Skull Knights

• The Elder: 1 War Hut, 10% Hut stats

• The Chief: 20% War Chief health, Enables War Chief special area damage attack

🡒 UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Puma Spearman: Reduced siege damage from 48 ▶ 42.

• Coyote Runner: Increased hit points from 150 ▶ 155.

🡒 CARDS
Reduced the cost of all Age 3 “Temple” cards from 1000 ▶ 500 coin, and reduced the number of units granted by each:

• Temple of Centeotl Support: Reduced the number of Otontin Slingers dispatched from 18 ▶ 12.

• Temple of Xipe Totec Support: Reduced the number of Coyote Runners dispatched from 12 ▶ 7.

• Temple of Tlaloc Support: Reduced the number of Eagle Runner Knights dispatched from 8 ▶ 5.

• Temple of Coatlicue Support: Reduced the number of Arrow Knights dispatched from 10 ▶ 6.

• Temple of Xochipilli Support: Reduced the number of Puma Spearmen dispatched from 12 ▶ 8.

• Temple of Xolotl Support: Reduced the number of Villagers dispatched from 10 ▶ 8.

• Religious Unity: Now reduces the cost of these shipments to 200 coin each (down from 750 coin).

Several adjustments have also been made to the Age 4 “Temple” cards:

• Great Temple of Quetzalcoatl Support: Now grants +15% attack and hit points rather than +25% attack.

• Great Temple of Huitzilopochtli Support: Now also increases the speed of Skull Knights by +0.5.

Additional card changes:

• Smoking Mirror: Reduced the speed bonus granted to the War Chief from +35% ▶ +25%.

• Great Chinampa (III) ▶ Great Chinampa (IV). Increased the gathering rate when working Farms and Estates from +15% ▶ +20%.

• Aztec Mining (III): In addition to its normal benefits, the card now converts the wood cost of the Otontin Slinger and Coyote Runner to coin.

While this change to Aztec Mining is largely aimed at making these units trainable in Treaty once all trees have been exhausted, it should also make this card (which is a powerful mining upgrade in-and-of-itself) a much more useful shipment, in general. We will be paying close attention to the impact of the change on Supremacy matches and will make additional adjustments as necessary.

The British

🡒 UPGRADES

• Imperial Longbowman (V): Now grants Longbowmen +0.25x versus Heavy Infantry (for 1.5x total).

The Chinese

🡒 CIVILIZATION
The Temple of Heaven wonder now awards the following units in each Age:

• 3 Villagers: (No change)

• 6 Villagers: (No change)

• 9 Villagers: Reduced from 10 Villagers.

• 11 Villagers: Reduced from 20 Villagers.

🡒 UNITS & BUILDINGS

• War Academy: Corrected the line of sight of the building, down from 34 ▶ 12.

🡒 UPGRADES

• German Relations (Consulate): Fixed an exploit where trained units which were unable to spawn (due to space limitations) would refund more resources than they cost to initially train.

• German Relations (Consulate): Moved Food Trickle (II) to Age 1.

• German Relations (Consulate): Moved Wood Trickle (III) to Age 2.

• German Relations (Consulate): Moved Coin Trickle (IV) to Age 3.

🡒 CARDS

• New Army (II): Reduced food cost from 500 ▶ 400 food.

The Dutch

🡒 CIVILIZATION

• Increased the starting game mining bonus from +15% ▶ +20%.

This change should not only improve the Dutch early-game without making any adjustments to their starting resources, but aims to offer more strategic variety by boosting their coin income. Likewise, it should better allow for aggressive strategies which involve delaying the construction of their Banks.
🡒 CARDS

• Bank of Amsterdam (I) & Bank of Rotterdam (II): In addition to increasing the build limit of Banks, both cards now also increase the Settler build limit by +5.

• Military Reforms (III) ▶ Military Reforms (I)

The change to Military Reforms should make it easier to include in Supremacy decks: allowing for more strategies built around the Dutch Royal Guard Stadswachts or early Halberdiers unlocked via the Logistician.

The French

🡒 UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Cuirassier: Improvements are now calculated using the Age 2 base stats rather than Age 3. This shouldn’t result in any notable difference to their strength during the Fortress Age, but will mean that they benefit slightly less from each upgrade. The Imperial Gendarme upgrade and French Consulate Gendarmes have been adjusted accordingly.

🡒 CARDS

• Food Silos (I): The French no longer have access to the card.

The Germans

🡒 UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Settler Wagons now obey rally points set at Mills.

The Haudenosaunee

The addition of several training speed upgrades should make the Haudenosaunee more fun to play at all skill levels—particularly in the Treaty game mode.🡒 UPGRADES

• Horse Secrets (Corral Big Button): In addition to previous effects, the upgrade now also improves the training speed of Cavalry by +35%.

🡒 CARDS

• [NEW] War Hut Training (II): Improves the training speed of Haudenosaunee War Hut units by +35%.

The Inca

🡒 CIVILIZATION
The following Tribal Council members have been adjusted:

• The Chief (II) ▶ The Chief (III). Now only grants 1 Town Travois as opposed to 1 Town Travois and 1 Builder Travois.

• The Warrior (III) ▶ The Warrior (IV). Now grants 8 Hurracas as opposed to 8 Bolas Warriors.

• The Wise Woman (I) ▶ The Wise Woman (II). Now grants 3 Priestesses as opposed to 2 Villagers and 5 Llamas.

Note that in future updates, we may tweak the strength of The Chief (I), which currently grants 2 Builder Travois. However, this would likely be accompanied by other changes that ensure the overall early-game strength of the civilization is maintained.

🡒 UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Chimu Runner: Reduced speed from 6.5 ▶ 6.25.

• Bolas Warrior: Increased speed from 4 ▶ 4.25.

• Kallanka: Now also supports 10 population, similar to a House.

🡒 UPGRADES

• Coca Cultivation (Estate Big Button): Reduced the build limit of Estates from 20 ▶ 10, effectively halving the maximum coin income.

🡒 CARDS

• American Allies (I): No longer enables all Carib, Mapuche, and Zapotec units. Instead, you will now choose ONE ally who will then grant access to their units and unique upgrades via the Native Embassy.

• Armed Fisherman (II): Now correctly grants a ranged attack to Fishing Boats.

• Chiribaya Dogs (IV): Fixed a bug which prevented the attack of the Peruvian Dog from being increased.

• Tupac Rebellion (IV): Updated the tooltip and behavior to clarify which units transform into what.

• INF 2 Priestesses (I) ▶ INF 1 Priestess (I)

• Sustainable Agriculture (II): The Inca no longer have access to this card.

The Indians

🡒 UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Mansabdars: Halved the population cost of all Mansabdar units, which now use the same population space as their ordinary counterparts.

🡒 UPGRADES

• Exalted Sepoys (V): Increased the attack and hit-point bonus granted to Sepoy units from +50% ▶ +60%.

The Japanese

🡒 CIVILIZATION

• Removed 100 food and added 100 coin to the Japanese starting resources.

🡒 UPGRADES

• Dutch Relations (Consulate): Added a Livestock Pen Wagon (IV, 900 Export) that can be used to create a Livestock Pen and obtain Goats. These Goats cannot be harvested by Japanese Villagers, but may be tasked to Shrines that have space for more animals. This addresses an issue where, in Team games, allies could send Japan livestock animals that they could otherwise not obtain themselves.

• Spanish Relations (Consulate): The Garrochista no longer receive a shadow improvement in the Fortress Age.

🡒 CARDS

• Bakufu (II): In addition to its normal benefits, Bakufu now also slightly increases the training speed of Military Units trained from buildings.

The Lakota

In Team Supremacy games at all skill levels, the Lakota are by far the most powerful civilization in Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition. These changes aim to reduce their overall strength: focusing particularly on features that are more useful on larger maps and against greater numbers of opponents.🡒 CIVILIZATION

• Removed 100 wood and added 100 coin to the Lakota starting resources.

• Community Plaza: Changed how Villagers scale the Siege Damage bonus granted by the Fire Ceremony. While the maximum possible benefit has been lowered to ~150% siege damage (from ~200%), the benefit starts at a slightly higher point than in previous builds.

🡒 UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Lakota War Chief: Reduced the speed bonus granted to nearby units from +15% ▶ +10%.

The Ottomans

🡒 CIVILIZATION

• Fixed an issue where the production of Citizens following a Revolution and subsequent redemption of the Citizenship card would take longer than normal due to the “auto-training” of Ottoman Villagers. Citizens will now take 25 seconds to train, cost 70 coin, and have a build limit of 99, as intended.

🡒 UPGRADES

• New Order Infantry (III) ▶ New Order Infantry (II): Increased the training speed of Heavy Infantry from +15% ▶ +20%.

🡒 CARDS

• Food Silos (I): Card has been added as a Home City shipment.

The Portuguese

We like to encourage interactive, map-control based gameplay, and were not fully comfortable with the Portuguese having access to the 7 Cows shipment alongside their other civilization bonuses.🡒 CARDS

• 7 Semi-Fattened Cows (II): The Portuguese no longer have access to the card.

The Russians

These changes are aimed at boosting the Russian early-game and encouraging more Fortress and Industrial Age strategies while bringing them into line in the Team Supremacy mode.🡒 UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Blockhouse: Increased the population supported from 5 ▶ 10. Adjusted The Logistician politician accordingly.

We will be playing close attention to the impact of the above change and will make adjustments as necessary—especially since it creates a new opening strategy where 50 wood can be collected and a Blockhouse constructed in lieu of a House.

• Oprichnik: Reduced siege attack damage from 75 ▶ 64.

🡒 CARDS

• Reformist Tsar (II): Reduced the cost of the Westernization (III) upgrade enabled at the Church from 900 wood ▶ 350 wood, 350 coin.

• Ransack (III): Now properly applies to Grenadier Grenade Launcher attacks.

• Castramentation (IV): No longer allows for the construction of Blockhouses by the Explorer. This change is aimed at the Treaty game mode.

• Engineering School (II): Card has been added as a Home City shipment—another Treaty balance change. Unicorn Mortars has been adjusted accordingly.

The Spanish

This particular change is aimed at improving the civilization’s win-percentage in Team games, which is abnormally low at ALL skill levels. To maintain the civilization’s “identity” and the important role of the Pikeman and Rodelero, the Commerce Age cavalry upgrades have not been altered to improve the Dragoons.🡒 CARDS

• Cavalry Combat (III): Now affects Spanish Dragoons, not just Hand Cavalry.

The Swedes

🡒 UNITS & BUILDINGS

• Torp: Reduced the maximum number of trees that can be harvested from 7 ▶ 5.

• Torp: Increased the cost to build from 125 ▶ 135 wood.

• Carolean: Corrected the unit’s line of sight from 15 ▶ 16.

🡒 CARDS

• Dominions (II) ▶ Dominions (III)

• 8 Crossbowmen (II): The Swedes no longer have access to the card.

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###      ◆ ONGOING INVESTIGATION ◆  

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As always, we are continuing to track issues reported by the community for future updates. Here is a brief update from our Production team regarding some of what is still in the works:

• Stuck Units: We believe we have fixes for most of the root problems causing this issue. Once they’ve been tested and included in a build, the most valuable thing you can provide if you encounter it again is:

1. a replay file that shows the units getting stuck
2. the name of the map
3. detailed steps of what commands were issued or steps resulted in the unit(s) getting stuck

Create a new thread on the discussion forum and we’ll do what we can to investigate and implement a fix!

• 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. More updates to come!

• Crashes: As always, the stability of the game continues to be a primary focus of our efforts. If you are experiencing crashes, disconnects, drops, performance problems, or other technical issues which affect your experience, please contact our support team so they can help you and collect information for our team.

There are also a few known issues that are already on our radar:

• Steam Invite Issue: There is a known issue where accepting a Steam invitation to a ranked game lobby will launch the game but fail to place you in the lobby. This is under investigation.

• Sent message may not be visible: Users will not be able to see messages they send—only those they receive. A fix has already been identified and will be implemented in the next update.

• Xbox Live Invites via Steam: Steam users who sign into Xbox Live will see a button to send Xbox Live invites which then display an error message when pressed. This button is not supposed to be displayed, and will be removed in the next update.

For other known issues, please visit this page to see what’s being tracked!

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###           ◆ MOD WARNING ◆  

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Please note that custom mods may not be compatible with the latest game update. If you encounter performance or stability issues after your mods are disabled, please visit our support page for assistance!