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Hello there Celeste players! We are back once again with another Developer Blog! It's hard to believe that it's been so long since the last update, but we are back now and we're working hard to bring you as much new content as we can.

We'll start off this blog with a recap of the highlights of what's been added to the game since the last development update, and then we'll discuss what's ahead in the near and far future of Age of Empires Online.

See the details below:

The Indian Civilization
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In October 2024, we released the 8th civilization in Age of Empires Online, the Indian Civilization. The feedback received on the civilization so far has been very positive and we're very excited to have been able to bring them to you!

You can read a quick recap of the entire civilization here.
You can also read all Indian-related blogs from the past here.

Level 40 Starts for All Civilizations
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One of the biggest barriers of entry for new players has always been the leveling process; many people love it, many do not. But now, players have the ability to completely skip the leveling process and jump directly into action at Level 40 with access to all units, buildings and technologies, as well as a pretty decent set of gear to get them started.

Those who prefer to level up their civilization, you have nothing to worry about - the traditional starting options are all still there.

This feature is available to all 8 civilizations, so if you didn't know about this feature, or if you know a friend who would love to jump straight into Level 40 and start playing with you, let them know!

Improvements to Crafting and Material Production
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One of the biggest quality of life additions we added last year was the Improved User Interface for Crafting and Material Production. Important especially for item crafting, players can now enjoy a much improved crafting experience by accessing important features such as Search Filters, a Search Function, as well as Batch Crafting.

Batch Crafting in particular has been one of our most requested features, allowing players to craft several of the same consumable without having to click so many times to craft multiple consumables and by doing so saving them a lot of time and effort.

Over time we plan on adding additional QoL changes to existing User Interfaces, so stay tuned for that!

Changes to City Defense/Conquest Quests
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As part of our community's feedback, we made changes to City Defense and City Conquest game modes:

• We changed the unit lineup for the Greeks and Persians to help them stay competitive with other civilizations in the game mode.
• We added a new upgrade to add variety and decision making to these quests' gameplay experience.

Community feedback has always been one of the biggest focus points for us in Project Celeste, and we always welcome more of it! We recently added a new forum-style space for suggestions on our Discord server, where the other members of the community can also contribute and discuss the given suggestion(s). Join now and help shape the future of the game!

New Vanity in Sparta
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Last year we also added a new exclusive Vanity Set - the Spartan Warrior Set. Available exclusively in Sparta, PvP players have another reason to play Ranked PvP. If you haven't started playing PvP yet, give it a shot now!

We also have an awesome community that are more than willing to help new players, practice with them and more. You can also find practice partners to improve together. Check our Discord server for more info!

What's Ahead: 2025 Development Roadmap
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This is currently what is planned for the game in 2025, but as always, things can change and everything in this list is subject to delay, change, or outright cancellation - but if everything goes as planned and the stars all align, we're expecting to see the things mentioned above.

A quick summary of each of the abovementioned additions can be found below:

• Near Future: These additions are the ones that will happen first.
  • Battle for Kalinga: the long awaited Indian-themed Legendary Quest Pack; More details about this can be found in its own dedicated blog. Over 12 quests, new capital city decoration and gear await you in this content pack!
  • Advisor Reworks #5: As an ongoing process, we are continuously making changes and tweaks to Advisors based on community feedback. So far we've had 4 successful reworks, and this will be the 5th one.
  • Elite Quests Rewards Rework: Based on community feedback, Elite quests currently don't feel as rewarding as they probably should, especially considering how much more difficult they are compared to their Repeatable variants. We will have more to share later, but we are currently planning to (significantly) increase the Coin payout of these quests, as well as other changes to their rewards. Stay tuned!
  • QoL Upgrades
• Later This Year: These additions are planned for sometime between now and the end of the year.
  • Advisor Unit Rework: This update will be one of the biggest updates ever; with over 20 Advisor Units, we plan to make all of these viable both during the leveling process, but more importantly after reaching Level 40. We also plan on making these units available in PvP. Some of the changes we currently plan to do with these units (but have no 100% confirmation on any of them) include:
    
    • Tweaking, changing or outright reworking all 20 Advisor Units to make them distinct from eath other, and from other units from the 8 civilizations' default unit roster.
    • Making all Advisor Units available to all 8 civilizations.
    • Adding two separate slots in the Advisor Hall for Unit Advisors
    • Adding all Advisor Units to the "Training Camp" building, and adding these units to PvP.
  • QoL Upgrades
• Far Future: These additions are currently planned, but we expect them to take longer than the rest to be ready for release.
  • Reworked Capital City Report: Manage your workshops, keep track of your currencies and more using a single interface.
  • Campaign Quest Tracker: An interface to keep track of your progress in different questlines.
    
  • Quest Cooldown Tracker: An interface to keep track of your completed quests' cooldowns.
  • Champion Mode Co-op in Quests: Champion Mode Quests currently only function in Solo mode. We are planning on making this mode available in Co-op, too.
  • Skirmish Hall Rework: Our plan is to bring Age of Empires Online's Skirmish experience to be as close to other Age games' Skirmish as possible. Stay tuned for more information on this.
  • QoL Upgrades

Pet Spotlight: Limoo the Hamster
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Continuing her heroic efforts towards providing moral support for the development team, Limoo the Hamster has now had her second birthday and is keeping everyone's morale up as always.


All current and future content will stay 100% free and accessible to everyone.
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Project Celeste Development Team
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The Romans are here! Watch the Overview Trailer.
The Indians are here! Watch the Overview Trailer.

Project Celeste is completely free and always will be. However, we gladly accept donations for our overhead costs, which are larger than we have budgeted. If you want to support us, you can do so HERE.

Read every Romans related blog HERE.
Read every Indians related blog HERE.

Tell your friends! Join our Discord HERE.
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Let us know what you think about the event in the comments below!