Age of Empires 4 Season One kicks off the Festival of Ages next week

pcgamesn.com:

2022’s first major update for RTS game Age of Empires IV, titled Festival of Ages, is due to arrive next week. The update introduces ranked multiplayer seasons, a content editor, mods, seasonal events, and a host of balance and quality-of-life tweaks. Developer Relic Entertainment showed off the new updates and features in a trailer and a developer livestream.

Possibly the most exciting introduction for players will be the content editor, which is launching in an initial beta state and allows players to tweak a wealth of options, create their own maps, and rebalance units to their desires, so you can finally give your favourite civilisation the overpowered units they always deserved. Players will also be able to craft entire mods if they wish – a few examples of which can currently be experienced in the Public Update Preview beta.

The other major addition with this update is the introduction of Seasons. As the name suggests, things will kick off with Season One upon the launch of the update, with Season Two set to follow in the coming months. These will feature Ranked Seasons for competitive multiplayer, allowing players to prove who’s truly the best of the best, as well as Seasonal Events which will offer rewards for completing in-game challenges.

Following initial testing in January, the first Ranked Season is set to last for 12 weeks, following a fairly standard ranking system that sees players play five placement matches to determine an initial rank before attempting to climb their way from Bronze rank all the way up to Diamond, and eventually to the elusive Conqueror rank. Finishing in a specific division will reward players with Monuments to place in their Town Centre, along with matching portraits and coat of arms