Here are some Age of Empires 2 Definitive Edition mods that you can't miss!
I personally use these mods and I wanted to make this list so that other players can benefit from them while playing. In general, they will make your interface and map cleaner and better, and they will also help you improve the way you play.
Some of them will be more or less useful to you. Try them, and let me know what you think!
Update: I have added mods from 13 to 16 to give you a more complete and useful list!
Table of contents
- Zetnus Improved Grid Mod
- Even Smaller Trees
- Improved Extended Tooltips
- Short Walls
- Interactive Build Order Guide
- Knock Out Area Attack Cursor
- Villager Highlighter
- Brandnew Resource Panel with Annoying Idle Villager Button
- Age of Mandala - Range Mod
- Simplified Minimap Colors
- Dark Age Town Center
- Plants Remover
- Anne_HK Boar Pointer
- Anne_HK Monk Pointer (Always Visible)
- Anne_HK Building Foundation Label (with Player Color)
- Anne_HK Bigger and Eye-catching Relic
- Conclusions
If you have other mods you think are worth installing, just write them down below in the comments!
To get an idea of how the game looks like with all these mods enabled, take a look at one of my most recent videos:
1) Zetnus Improved Grid Mod
No more holes in your walls! Just kidding, there will always be one.
But do not despair my friend! Zetnus Improved Grid Mod will be usefull to spot hidden holes and place builings more easily! You can also learn better How to quickwall as TheViper (tutorial made by Hera).
Basically, it will add thin grey lines, showing how the map is divided in squares.
Go to the download page
2) Even Smaller Trees
Trees are annoying, our world would be better with more concrete, don't you agree? Well, we can't remove trees from everywhere, but we can make them smaller in our games!
Even smaller trees, if you didn't guess it already, is a mod that will make your trees very small (wow really?). This is useful expecially in maps like Black Forest, but I find it helpful even in Arabia or Arena, to spot units more easily and to have a cleaner view of the map.
Trees are too small? Then you can try Small Trees mod, which could be a good compromise between the two situations.
Go to the download page
3) Improved Extended Tooltips
Improved Extended Tooltips is not necessarily an improvement for your gameplay, but it will be helpful in case you want more information about units and buildings while playing.
You will get more details about attack bonuses, armor classes, move speed, reload time, creation time, accuracy, line of sight, blast radius, special attacks and other attributes.
Go to the download page
4) Short Walls
The Chinese built the Great Wall some time ago, but when we play we might want to spot units more easily, right?
Well, if you, like me, have troubles finding sheeps and boars sometimes, I am sure that Short Walls will come in handy! This will make all walls smaller, and even kinda cuter if you want.
Just a side note, it can happen that walls placed in oblique will look a bit weird in some cases.
Go to the download page
5) Interactive Build Order Guide
In my opinion this is the best mod for single player training to improve your skills!
Interactive Build Order Guide allows you to load scenarios and practice in-game with several build orders!
Reading a build order can be difficult and I really think this mod will help you moving some steps forward and increase your ELO. Of course in a real game you'll have to adapt. There are many ways to learn a build order properly. You can print a paper and keep it on a side while playing, ALT-Tab in game to take a look at the guide, memorize the number of villagers to assign to a resource or the time to build the barracks, but you'll have to play it anyway.
Some of the build orders you can learn with this mod:
- 22 pop scouts
- 23 pop archers
- 28+2 pop knights
- 27+2 pop boom
- 26 pop full water
- 26 pop hybrid
- ... and many more
Go to the download page
6) Knock Out Area Attack Cursor
I find it hard to shoot with Mangonels and Bombard Cannons. Knock Out Area Attack Cursor helps me getting it right. Of course, misses and mistakes will still be a thing.
This mod will add a big red crosshair on the terrain when you manually shoot with some units, like Mangonels, Onagers, Bombard Cannons.
Finally, no more friendly fire! Are you ready to splash those juicy crossbowmen? Please record that moment and link the video down here in the comments!
Go to the download page
7) Villager Highlighter
This is probably a minor improvement, but I find it useful.
When you produce villagers you might find it difficult to understand which ones are producing and which ones are queueing. Idle Town Centers? What is that? Just an old problem that Villager Highlighter will bury forever!
Go to the download page
8) Brandnew Resource Panel with Annoying Idle Villager Button
Another minor improvement, it will make your resources panel better, with colors for each resource, and it will add an annoying indicator so you can easily see that there are idle villagers.
You know, those lazy builders just want to laze around behind your back, while you are focused fighting and microing your archers. You turn your eyes away for a second, and here are 30 villagers doing nothing.
Brandnew Resource Panel with Annoying Idle Villager Button is the way to go!
Go to the download page
9) Age of Mandala - Range Mod
Age of Mandala is a set of different mods, and the Range Mods will be very useful to improve your games.
Basically, you will see more clearly the range a building has, for your own buildings and for enemy buildings too. Some of the mods also work with the foundations, so while a tower or castle is being built you can see how far its arrows will go.
No more dead scouts under enemy TCs (unless you are Daut) and no more surprise castles in da face!
Here is the list of the Range mods:
- Town Center Range Mod
- Castle Range Mod
- Tower Range Mod
- Krepost and Harbor Range Mod
- Tower foundation Range Mod
- Castle foundation Range Mod
- Town Center foundation Range Mod
Of course, these mods can become annoying sometimes and fill your maps with weird lines. For me, it works kinda good most of the times, but it can be a bit confusing in large team games. Try them and let me know!
10) Simplified Minimap Colors
Simplified Minimap Colors modifies the colors of the minimap to make them less confusing, expecially when trying to spot units or resources.
No green minimaps, and the hills will be in 2D.
Go to the download page
11) Dark Age Town Center
Sometimes sheeps are hard to see under the Town Center, and this mod will make them easier to see by removing some parts of the building.
This works only in the Dark Age. When you reach Feudal Age, the aspect of the Town Center will go back to its original form.
Dark Age Town Center also supports the Enhanced Graphics Pack.
Go to the download page
12) Plants Remover
Not much to say. Plants Remover will remove some of the useless plants you have on the map, making it cleaner while you play.
Go to the download page
13) Anne_HK Boar Pointer
Ever wondered where the hell your boars are hiding? Well, this happens often to me, so I find this mod quite useful, expecially in some maps.
It will put a piggy indicator over your boars. It does not work with elephants and other animals, but it's still good for most use cases.
What are you waiting for? Go to the download page!
14) Anne_HK Monk Pointer (Always Visible)
Who let the monks out? Wo-wo-wo-wo-lololo. Now, monks will not be hiding so easily from us anymore! Basically this adds an arrow indicator on top of all your monks! And it is always visible!
There are two variations, actually:
And remember: The monk gang is back!
15) Anne_HK Building Foundation Label (with Player Color)
If you like those nice icons on the buildings that you can see in CaptureAge, then you will like also this!
The mod adds some good looking colored icons on the buildings foundations, helping you understand and remember what you are building, and also what your enemies are building!
Interested? Head to the download page!
16) Anne_HK Bigger and Eye-catching Relic
No more missing relics on the map! Just kidding, you will still probably miss some of them.
But this mod will make the relics bigger and place a star over them, so they will be easier to see when you are scouting or scrolling the map. Sounds good, right?
Then just go to the download page!
Conclusions
I hope you found this list useful! To get all the updates, follow me on Facebook and subscribe to my Youtube channel! If you wish, you can make a donation!
Leave a comment below with your feedback or share a mod you think is worth trying!