Age of Empires II HD on Voobly

Question

Does Age of Empires II HD work with Voobly multiplayer? Will there be any versioning issues?

Answer 1

AoE2 HD can be played on Voobly, but you need to install the compatibility patch. This Reddit thread gives detailed instructions on how to do it, but I will outline how to do it here, assuming you already have AoE2 HD installed on Steam:

1. Install Voobly from www.voobly.com if you haven't already
2. Download the userpatch from www.aoccs.net and run it. This will not overwrite or destroy any files that AoE2 HD uses; it simply adds folders and files.
3. Start Voobly and sign in with your account. Then, open any one of the AoE 2 game lobbies, such as the New Player Lobby (NPL).
4. The Voobly client should automatically find the game installation and update the game with a userpatch; do this. If it can't find the game, from your Steam library, right click on Age of Empires II: HD Edition and click on Properties. Navigate to Properties > Local Files > Browse Local Files.... This will open up your Steam/steamapps/common/Age2HD folder, which I will now call %AoE2Root%. You will need to provide Voobly with %AoE2Root%/age2_x1/age2_x1.exe (which was provided by the aoccs compatibility patch)
5. Now that you are in a lobby, click on "Quick Host" to host a game, and set the number of players to be 1 (not completely necessary, but this way nobody tries to join your game). From the menu at the top, click on Game > Start at Single Player Menu. Now Launch the game.
6. Click on Options and create a new profile. Then, exit the game.

At this point, you can play on Voobly and also on Steam. However, there are still a few weird things you'd find for Voobly:

• No music is played (or it will play whatever music is on the CD in your CD drive)
• The hotkeys are "messed up"
• Taunts don't work.
• You can only play AoC, not the Forgotten Empires or African Kingdoms.

If you are fine with that, that's okay, but here's how to fix them:

No music is played

This can be fixed with a Voobly mod. Voobly has a large quantity of local data mods, as well as gameplay mods. The mod we need for this is a local data mod called AoC Music (or - if you prefer - AoK music).

Visit that link and click Download Now. Voobly will automatically install the mod.

The hotkeys are wrong

Voobly will, by default, use the original AoC hotkeys, not the AoE2 HD hotkeys. Thankfully, there's a mod that sets the defaults to AoE2 HD hotkeys: HD Hotkeys

Just install this mod. If you want to customize your hotkeys, open the game in the single player menu and customize from the options there.

Taunts don't work

To fix this, go to %AoE2Root%/resources/en/sound and copy the taunt folder to %AoE2Root%. Replace the en with your language of choice.

I can't play Forgotten Empires or African Kingdoms

Voobly is used mainly for AoC, but there are mods that let you play Forgotten Empires and African Kingdoms. I haven't personally installed them yet, since very few players on Voobly use them.

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A bit more info on Voobly Mods

Voobly's Mods are installed to %AoE2Root%/Voobly Mods. When you download a mod from the Voobly Mod Center, it puts the files there. Inside a game lobby, you can activate or deactivate Local Mods by clicking on the Mods dropdown and selecting the checkbox. To uninstall a mod, visit the webpage of the mod and click Uninstall.

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If the game still doesn't work

If your game still doesn't work, either when you try to play or when you try to spectate, you might need to set up the DirectX options to not use hardware acceleration. For me, that looks like this:

If all else fails, Voobly has an excellent technical support team that you can reach by clicking on the Live Help button at the top of the lobby:

Answer 2

Voobly releases their own updates of Age of Empires series, so that everyone in Voobly plays same version and also gets HD resolutions. But that's for the original ones you may have bought from Microsoft and Ensemble Studios. There's official Voobly support for AoE 1, AoE Rise of Rome, Age of Kings, Age of Conquerors and Age of Forgotten. Besides, you've got the right for the original AoF expansion with voice acting in the campaign, unlike Steam's that gets only text. For Steam Age 2 HD release, that's not going to work. You may be limited only to play in Steam, but I assure you there are many players in there too. I myself prefer Steam, as a matter of fact. Hope we meet in battle soon! See ya. Hugs, Marcelo