FAQ & support

Yes, completely. It's open source under the GPL v3, with no account, ads or paid tier.

Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition on Windows, from Steam or PC Game Pass / the Microsoft Store. Mods work the same way in both.

The Xbox and PlayStation versions only allow official mods, so they can't load Empire Forge mods. The older HD and original editions aren't supported.

No. The download is a single program with everything inside it. You only need the game installed on the same PC.

Never. Empire Forge only reads your game files, and writes a separate mod. Turn the mod off (or delete it) and the game is exactly as it was.

Yes — everyone in the lobby needs the same mod installed and enabled. To do this, publish your mod through the game's own mod workshop website.

Yes. On the Build Civ page, choose Convert KM Civ, then keep editing the result in the wizard.

That's SmartScreen, which warns about any program it hasn't seen many times before. Click More info, then Run anyway. Why the warning appears.

Work through these in order:

1. Antivirus. Some antivirus tools quietly quarantine new programs, and running as administrator doesn't help. In Windows Security, check Protection history and restore the file if it's there.
2. Run it from a terminal so any error stays on screen: open PowerShell in your Downloads folder and run .\AOE2EmpireForge.exe. Post what it says on Discord.
3. The browser didn't open. The console shows the address it's running on (usually http://127.0.0.1:8080) — open it in your browser yourself.

Empire Forge looks in the usual Steam and Xbox app install folders. If your game is somewhere else — another drive, or a custom library — paste the path to empires2_x2_p1.dat on the upload page. It's inside your game folder at resources\_common\dat\.

In Steam: right-click the game → Manage → Browse local files to find the game folder.

Civs in progress are saved in your browser as you work, and as .civbuilder.json files wherever you save them. Your custom bonus library is in %APPDATA%\EmpireForge.

Keep the .civbuilder.json files — they're your civs. A new version of Empire Forge can always rebuild a mod from them.

The UI mod isn't winning. In the game's mod menu, raise the UI mod's priority — even when it's the only mod you have enabled. Both the data mod and the UI mod must be active together.

Check that each zip was unzipped into its own folder directly inside mods\local\ (not a folder within a folder), then restart the game. The full path is on the How It Works page.

The most common cause is a very large civ: the game refuses to load if the tech tree or team bonus holds more than about 189 changes. The build log warns you when you're close. Switch fewer tech-tree nodes off or take fewer team bonuses, rebuild, and try again. If that isn't it, post your .civbuilder.json on Discord.

Usually, yes: rebuild your mod after a major patch or DLC, so it's made from the new game data. Your civ files don't change; the same Empire Forge reads the updated game.

No — each custom civ takes over an existing civ's slot, which you choose when you build. The Chronicles civs (Achaemenids, Athenians, Spartans, Macedonians, Thracians, Puru) can't be replaced, but their bonuses that work with ordinary units are available as cards.

Some bonuses can't be made to work properly outside their original civ — "ignores armor", for example, is built into the game engine. Rather than ship a card that does nothing, Empire Forge leaves it out.

• A building has 24 training buttons — two pages of twelve.
• A unit can cost at most two resources.
• A few unique techs are run by the game's own scripts and only partly apply to a custom civ (Coiled Serpent Array, Red Cliffs Tactics, Butalmapu).
• Units can overlap in the in-game tech tree viewer (F2). It's cosmetic; they train normally.

The in-app Known Limitations page has the complete, current list.