Setting up Age of Empires 2 Multiplayer For Wine Linux 2019

SHH… HAA… AoE2ToolsCloud has been released just today…Hooray!

Q: What’s AoE2ToolsCloud?

A: AoE2ToolsCloud Sets up Voobly and Age of Empires 2 for multiplayer in OneClick. You no longer have to waste time installing the game on windows, installing offline mods, installing UserPatch, installing Wololokingdoms then exporting everything to your linux system. And most of the times, it is a nightmare to set up Voobly and fixing stubborn issues with the game.

Well, the good news is… AoE2ToolsCloud is fully supported on Wine. All you have to do is install steam through a wine32 bit installation (which I am going to show you how to set it up later on this post) and login to your account.

No need to install Age of Empires 2 HD on steam! Cool, isn’t it? – However, you must own all three DLCS to use the tool.

These are the 3 DLCS you need to own on your account:

1. Forgotten Empires
2. African Kingdoms
3. Rise of Rajas

Setting Up Wine (Development) Fully 32bit

Install/Update graphics drivers for Linux System

Before we jump into wine setup we should update or install any missing drivers. Fire up your terminal command

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:oibaf/graphics-drivers
sudo ubuntu-drivers autoinstall
sudo apt-get update

if it asks for a restart please go ahead and restart then come back to continue from here.

Clean 32bit Wine Install With 32bit Prefix (NO MONO)

For this wine installation, we are going to use “Wine (development version)” and “winetricks” available on your Software Center.

(YOU MUST INSTALL THROUGH SOFTWARE CENTER NOT TERMINAL ELSE IT WON’T WORK!!)

Once that’s done! Run the following command to set up wine32bit with a 32bit prefix:

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 wine wineboot

Then you need to set your 32bit prefix to windows 10

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winecfg

Now your prefix should be ready for winetricks.

Installing Libraries Components Through Winetricks

Before we proceed with the bash commands, take a few seconds to educate yourself abtout the basic requirements for every app we are about to use:

• AoE2Tools requires (cmd, corefonts, dotnet45 or dotnet461)
• Age of Empires 2 on Voobly (corefonts, directplay, directx, quartz)
• Steam (corefonts, quartz, wininet, other libraries were omitted that may break dotnet461 installation)

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks corefonts
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks cmd
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks directplay
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks directx9
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks d3dx9
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks d3dx10
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks dotnet461
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks dsound
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks quartz
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks wininet
WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks xact

Once again let’s go back to winetricks

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 winetricks

Check every directx dlls to ensure the best gaming  experience possible.

Did you make it here? Well! Congratulations! Your wine installation is ready and looking all lovely.

Setting Up AoE2Tools Steam

In this final section, we are going to take a look at setting up AoE2Tools and Steam while the rest will be taken care of by AoE2ToolsCloud.

Open a new terminal window and let’s take these bad boys to the download folder first

cd ~/Downloads

Downloading, Installing, Running Steam

1. To download the windows version of steam

wget https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/client/installer/SteamSetup.exe

2. To install steam to your freshly made wine 32bit prefix

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 wine SteamSetup.exe

You know the installation drill! Next, Next, and Finish. Steam will start updating and once that’s over sign into your steam account.

Downloading, Installing, Running AoE2ToolsCloud

1. To download the latest version of AoE2Tools, we will need to install a tiny package first

sudo apt install jq

Now let’s download the latest release of AoE2Tools

file_get=$(wget -q -nv -O- https://api.github.com/repos/gregstein/AoE2Tools/releases/latest |  jq -r '.assets[] | select(.browser_download_url | contains(".exe")) | .browser_download_url') && wget --output-document=AoE2Tools.exe $file_get

2. To Install AoE2Tools on your freshly built 32bit prefix

WINEPREFIX="$HOME/win32" WINEARCH=win32 wine AoE2Tools.exe

This is similar to Steam installation, Press Next, Next and Finish.

That should bring up AoE2Tools Launcher.

If AoE2Tools didn’t launch you should find the shortcut on your desktop or search “AoE2Tools” as it is likely to be found with your apps. And FYI, AoE2Tools installs to this location

cd /home/$USER/.wine/drive_c/users/yourname/Application Data/AoE2Tools

Don’t forget to change “yourname” to your system username.

Launching AoE2ToolsCloud

This is how the launcher looks like

Press That Cloud Icon, indicated by the red arrows, to get access to the Cloud utility.

Once you click that! Steam will be prompted to sign in if you weren’t already signed in.

As you can see above, you can pick any installation build (Iron, Copper, Gold, Diamond, Painite) in a prestigious order. Please note that every build has or lacks mods and expansions, so take your time to preview them one by one by clicking the preview image on the top right-hand side of the window.

Below the preview, you can find the featured offline visual mods, and expansions.

Once you select the build of your choice, press Customize in the bottom of the window

This is the final configuration step which you can just leave as it is unless you want to change Voobly Client language, installation path or import a custom hotkey profile, etc.

Once you press “Download Install”

This is how it looks, You simply need to press “Get My Key (Free)” where another tiny window pops up which you need to copy the code from it then Press “Enter Your Code”. That should take you to https://ageofnotes.com/openkey/

Where you are expected to paste your code and press Generate My Key as in the picture below:

Press generate My Key and copy your free key to AoE2ToolsCloud

E.g.

Finally, Paste your key to AoE2ToolsCloud and hit Validate button

While you are downloading or installing do not forget to use “Autologin Voobly” section so you would be automatically logged into Voobly and automatically joining the preferred lobby when the entire process is done.

That’s it, guys! Feel free to comment or post any issues. Also, remember not to run the game offline if you want to play single player or multiplayer you must use Voobly to do so. Until wine fixes it someday.

If you wish to support this project in any means:

• Donate
• Github Repo
• Discord