Age of Empires IV how to reduce game file size from 34,4GB to under 8GB!
This site is for educational purposes only!!
After testing it seems to be the easiest to delete a couple of files.
But you need to think thru first, do I need full graphics and hi audio quality?
If you can live with low then it can be under 8GB. Now steam version is 34,4GB installed.
Set all settings sound and graphics settings to lowest and try the game, if its ok for you then continue.
With game closed go to game location Age of Empires IV\cardinal
Delete or move to different location:
audiomedium and audiohigh folder
Under Age of Empires IV\cardinal\archives
All files that starts with DX12 at the moment 12 files
Under Age of Empires IV\cardinal\movies\source
Full campaign folder (12,7GB) if you can live without movies for the campaigns.
So now the game is only 7,96GB
You can trim it down even more but try and error good luck:)
Bonus!
if you want different startup movie of the game
Go to Age of Empires IV\cardinal\movies\source\fe
and change this movie relic_intro_logos.webm
Game got difficult to read different movies then those already in the game, so pick one you want from in game.
copy paste and change name to relic_intro_logos.webm
And for background Age of Empires IV\cardinal\movies\source\fe\backgrounds
change globe_background_main.webm
If you want it all back to normal just let steam Verify Integrity of Game Files
This site is for educational purposes only!!