posted 08-01-17 06:45 PM CT (US)
Playing CD version when owning HD Edition
Section 1 – Compatibility patch
Section 2 – UserPatch and small fixes for Single Player
Section 3 – Multiplayer
Section 4 – HD expansions patch
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With the release of the HD Edition in 2013, the Age of Empires playerbase has significantly increased, many players have (re)discovered the game via the HD Edition on Steam.
But unfortunately HD has some limitation, both in terms of performance or compatibility with UserPatch made contents. Whether you want to try the UserPatch for its performance, features, to try some of the great scenarios or mods that can't be played on HD, this article will explain exactly how to do so.
Note that all these patches
All these patches are community made and all require a legitimate version of AoE2:HD to work.
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The
First things first, go to
Once it is successfully installed, you can run the game here: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Age2HD\age2_x1\age2_x1.exe
If you are only interested in playing Multiplayer, skip to step 3.
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For how great the Compatibility Patch is, small adjustments are needed for properly playing single player.
In its current version the Compatibility Patch doesn't automatically install the latest Userpatch version. You can download it
extract SetupAoC.exe to your Age2HD directory and then run the exe, with admin privilege if necessary.
If you were to launch the game now you would notice some weird things such as civilization names being bugged. This is due to a bugged language file. It can easily be fixed by downloading the language you want
The last thing needed is required for the game not to crash in the scenario editor when placing terrains. You have to replace blendomatic.dat in the /data folder with a copy of blendomatic_x1.dat : backup your blendomatic.dat, copy blendomatic_x1.dat and rename that copy blendomatic.dat .
Last but not least, the standard AI isn't included in the Compatibility patch. You will have to download a
Here you go, you now have a fully working AoC version of Age of Empires with UserPatch installed.
If you want you can now download any mod or scenario designed in UserPatch and play them at will.
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While HD has an inbuilt multiplayer platform, the AoC version requires a third party program to create and join lobbies.
The main two being Voobly and GameRanger, both having active community and only relatively minor differences. Both have straightforward installations, just follow the instructions.
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But what if you want more than just AoC and want to play the HD expansions civs as well ? Well it turns out you can !
Go to
If it found your AoC installation, it will have installed the mod automatically. Otherwise, as the program will tell you, open the "out" folder. Inside, you'll see two folders called "Voobly Mods" and "Games". Copy these two folders, then paste them into the HD installation folder: C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Age2HD
With that, the mod is running and functional!
To launch the mod in single player, go to /age2_x1 and run WK.exe
And here you have it, I hope I covered everything in this article but let me know in the comments if something was unclear.
[This message has been edited by TriRem (edited 08-03-2017 @ 03:23 AM).]
I was a bit fuzzy on the details of this patch since i owned both games already and didnt need it but this cleared it all up.
