Age of Wonders 4 - Troubleshooting & Bug Reporting Guide (2025)

[TriumphJordi]

Intel 13/14th Gen CPU's - i5, i7, i9 K Models/Raptor Lake CPU's

Users that experience constant but inconsistent and random crashes and have a 13th/14th Gen Raptor Lake K CPU's may suffer from Intel's Vmin Shift Instability. This is a hardware issue and can indicate that your CPU has suffered a minor power surge. Intel has done a extensive investigation since the issue original was brought to light around February 2024.

Steps to Take:
Reach out to Intel or your Hardware Reseller for a Refund as per Intel Community Guidelines:
https://community.intel.com/t5/Processors/Clarification-Update-on-Intel-Core-13th-14th-Gen-Desktop/m-p/1618462

Getting a replacement CPU is the only guaranteed way to resolve Vmin Shift related instabilities. Other solutions are only mitigations to reduce further damage to your CPU and will not fix any damage already done. As per the mitigations here: https://community.intel.com/t5/Blogs/Tech-Innovation/Client/Intel-Core-13th-and-14th-Gen-Desktop-Instability-Root-Cause/post/1633446

• Update Bios to latest
  
• Check for Motherboard Manufacturer Power Settings that align with Intels Recommendations
  
• Ensure that the Microcode Update has been installed

GPU Crashes

When you experience a crash that is preceded by "A Driver Crash has occurred" then a GPU disconnect/device removal has occurred. When this occurs we crash the game to avoid instability that may occur from continuing to run the game. These issues are non-descript and can occur randomly based on combination of Hardware, Software and active processes.

They are typically recognized by DXGI Error codes 0x887A0005 DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED or 0x887A0006 DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_HUNG. We have active investigations with both NVidia and AMD to determine whether there's anything they can do or we can do to improve the situation.

There's nothing that can be actively done to resolve these types of crashes, however some mitigations might help alleviate the issues.

- If these issues recently started occurring you can check if a Driver Update occurred. If it's possible, returning to the previous stable version may help.

- You can try to disable DxCore, which changes the way GPU Detection occurs. For this you need to do the following

• Locate your Config folder (see Bug Reporting)
  
• Open Game.cfg or create it if it doesn't exist
  
• Add DXCORE_ENABLED=false and save the file
  
• Launch the game
  
• In your logs you should see "Using DXGI for GPU detection" instead of "Using DXCORE for GPU detection"

- You can adjust settings to reduce usage (see Performance)

Common Issues

o Crackling Audio
If you experience Crackling Audio then your problem may be due to a mismatch in PCIE settings. For more information you can check out this Reddit Thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/Amd/comments/11no3nd/a_detailed_summary_of_the_crackling_problem/

Suggested Fix:
In your BIOS, set the PCIEX16 slot configuration to Gen2 mode (or Gen4 + PCIEX16 bifurcation to 2x8 mode) or away from AUTO.

o Crashes on startup before being able to get to the Settings
- If you experience a launch crash through the Paradox Launcher, please try to launch the game directly from the .exe in the installation folder. The error message there will be a lot more useful to figure out your issue.

- For any crashes on startup it would be worth trying to change the PlatformSettings0.cfg file directly in your Config folder using a text editor. See Bug Reporting on where to locate your Config folder.

- Make sure the correct GPU is selected; if not and the game does not adhere to your PC settings, then in the settings file:

• Remove Video.DisplayAdapterID
  
• Set Video.DisplayAdapterName to your GPU name, which be found in your Device Manager under Display Adapters (example: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060)

- If it still crashes, lower the above mentioned settings directly like this:

• Set Video.VSyncRate=0
  
• Set GraphicsOptions.ShadowQuality=0
  
• Set GraphicsOptions.TextureQuality=0
  
• Set GraphicsOptions.QualityMode=0

o Performance
- If you experience issue with game performance you can try adjust some of the settings listed below:

• Reduce the Render Scale - This reduces the in-game rendering to a % off your base Resolution
  
• Settings > Graphics > Vsync
  
• Settings > Graphics > Animation Quality - Recommended for Combat
  
• Settings > Graphics > Soil Cover Quality - Recommended for Combat
  
• Settings > Graphics > Shadow Quality
  
• Settings > Graphics > Texture Quality

(Above settings are examples of the most common offenders, other settings might need to be lowered)

- If you experience stutters while panning over the World Map, these are the Units activating and deactivating their Animations.

- If you experience specific Frame Drops/Performance issues then please use the in-game feedback reporter to provide us with a save and make a Bug Report and we can investigate.

o "Opponents are Moving" or "Waiting for Combat" endlessly
- This means the AI is stuck, which unfortunately can be quite a specific situation. It is best to always report these issues as defined below and include a save game from before the turn ended, so we can tackle them. To potentially circumvent these hangs; reload an earlier save and perform completely different actions, that MIGHT prevent the issue from happening.

o Session going out of sync or getting stuck in Multiplayer
- What is an Out of Sync?
An Out of Sync occurs when the Game Data between one or more players is different. This can happen when pieces of code aren't Multiplayer safe and end up with different Results when performing the same actions or it can occur when Actions get dropped due to slow or insufficient Internet Connection.

In most cases the game will trigger a reload to sync all players to the same game state. It does this once during the turn and then on turn end if any additional Out of Syncs occurred. Generally you should be able to continue after a reload. If not, try reverting the round by going to Active Sessions > Settings > Revert.

- How to Report
After a Out of Sync occurred please use the in-game Feedback Reporter to send us all relevant Game Data. After that please make a bug report. Try to provide as much information as you can recall, you can provide the Game Settings using the Realm Overview as well as what actions lead up to the Out of Sync such as Turn, whether a AI performed a Combat, whether you picked up a Unit Pick up etc.

[TriumphJordi]

Bug Reporting

If the issue you want to report is not in the above list, then please first check if you can quickly find another report with a similar issue here in the Bug Report sub-forum. Post in the thread to provide additional information if you find your issue.

If your issue has seemingly not been reported yet, please make a new report with as much information as possible. You can attach Saves (in a Zipped file) & Logs to your Bug Report. Especially any steps to reproduce are appreciated!

If you've experienced a crash and our crash reporter has launched then please make sure to do the following.

• Read the information in the crash reporter that pops up
  
• If you agree, click the send button
  
• Copy the crash name at the bottom of the screen when the upload succeeds
  
• Use the crash report name in the bug report you make

If your Crash Report fails to upload (Error Code: 500 something) then it may be that the file size is too big for upload. In the Crash Report you can disable Files/Information that is included.

o Where to locate files?

• Game logs: \Documents\Paradox Interactive\Age of Wonders 4\Logs
  
• Launcher Logs: %localAppData%\Paradox Interactive\launcher-v2\logs
  
• Steam Saves: Steam\userdata\NUMBERS\1669000\remote\Save
  
• Epic & GoG Saves: \Documents\Paradox Interactive\Age of Wonders 4\Storage

- If you do not have Logs or Config Folder in your Documents\Paradox Interactive\Age of Wonders 4 and you do not use OneDrive, Google Drive or a Cloud solution you might find your files in:

• %AppData%\Paradox Interactive\Age of Wonders 4
  
• %LocalAppData%\Paradox Interactive\Age of Wonders 4

o What do we need from reports?
We almost always prefer saves. Generally for:

• Gameplay Crashes (Combat, Out of Turn etc.)
  
• AI Hangs
  
• Issues with Events/Rewards
  
• Incomes not adding up as expected
  
• Issues coming from using an Enchantment

Game Logs are really useful for things such as:

• Multiplayer Login Fails/Out of Syncs
  
• Mods not loading etc.