If you watch any Age of Empires 2 live streams, you may have noticed that some folk have nice, identical trees in their game.
If you have no idea what I’m talking about, it’s possible to make every single tree look the same as one another, regardless of the map, so that everything looks consistent in-game.
Keeping your trees in good order is a great way to make sure that your base is cleaner and that you don’t accidentally select any incorrect units while playing.
To help you tidy up your base and keep your game running smoothly, here’s a tutorial on how to get nice, identical trees in Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition.
How to Install Mods in Age of Empires 2
If you’re unsure how to install mods in AoE 2: Definitive Edition then you’re in luck. It’s very simple and no technical know-how is necessary.
From the game’s main menu, click the Options cog in the top right hand corner.
From there, click on the Mods option.
Then once you’re within the Mods menu, click into ‘Browse Mods’ in the top menu.
We can then use the Search function to find the specific mod that we want here.
Click onto the mod that you wish to install and then click ‘Subscribe’. It will then automatically install and activate.
If for any reason the mod doesn’t work straight away, navigate back to the ‘Installed Mods’ tab and ensure the mod is enabled. It will have a checkmark next to it.
If it still isn’t working after enabling it, try restarting your game and it should fix the issue.
How to Get Identical Trees
There are two different popular mods to get identical trees in AoE 2.
The first of these is ‘Anne_HK – Identical Pine Trees with Grid Shadow’.
If you want all of your trees to look exactly the same — like pine trees with a nice shadow — this is the mod you’ll want.
This is the mod that we used in the featured image of this post and is currently used by some of the best Age of Empires 2 players in the world, including Hidden Cup 4 finalists Hera and JorDan.
The second option is ‘Anne_HK – Selected Small Trees with Grid Shadow’.
This option gives some of the benefits of the Identical Pine Trees whilst also maintaining a little bit more of the game’s original feel.
This is the tree mod that The Viper uses — arguably the greatest Age of Empires 2 player of all time.
Instead of all trees looking like pine trees, with this mod, the trees are still relative to different maps and map variations, but they still all look the same as each other.
Whether your map has palm trees, forest trees, bamboo, or any other kind of tree, they will all look identical to each other in-game, which looks a little cleaner than a jungle of various sizes and shapes.
The look of the trees isn’t just a visual element of the game, it can also affect your play in certain situations, so finding the best tree mod for Age of Empires 2 is an important thing to add to your gaming arsenal.
