On Monday, September 22nd at 14:11:53 the Alpha 2 server ended with the first Empire to ever reach 250 Prestige in Aether Kingdoms. These are the final patch notes until the next version and server release.
Screenshot of the end of game statistics. The 'first' features are new, so not filled out for this server.
It has been a pleasure to play with everyone who came to play and test the game. Thank you all!
Features added
- A new movement type has been added: Besiege. The game now distinguishes between an attack and a siege. To damage buildings or conquer a village, you'll need to send a siege attack. Siege attacks have a fixed speed of 4 fields per hour. This means fast cavalry can no longer quickly demolish a far away city while you're asleep.
- The statistics general page has been updated to look better and to include player milestones throughout the server: the first settlement, the first landmark captured and the first monument completed.
- Beginner protection. Players now start the game with 7 days of beginner protection, relative to server speed.
- You can now search for a Kingdom on the statistics page to quickly find their profile.
The Besiege movement type
Balance changed
- Siege Academy was split from +1 minimum/maximum damage every to levels, into +1 maximum damage for each odd level and +1 minimum damage for each even level. This makes each level feel worthwhile to get.
- University level 1 output was reduced, while scaling was increased to maintain 81 science/hour at level 10.
- Marketplace cost scaling was reduced to make the latest levels more affordable.
- Horseman speed was boosted from 12 to 14, knight and cataphract from 10 to 12 fields/hour. This is to make cavalry more distinct after slowing down siege attacks.
- The food cost of tier 3 units was reduced while other resources were slightly increased, because costing a lot of food is no fun when you're trying to max out your army.
- Objective unit spawn rates have been modified to feel more fair based on army sizes during testing.
- Milestone values were rebalanced after testing a full gameplay round.
Improvements made
- Game ticks now start on the current minute and second, leading to more consistent behaviour after a reboot (e.g. traderoutes start at the same time every hour now).
- The Tasks UI is further improved.
- The game finished announcement is now more appealing (it was: Game finished, show server statistics.)
The new end of game announcement
Bugs squashed
- Destroying buildings will no longer lower resource production below the minimum value.
- Reinforcements are once again considered in combat when attacking a village.
- The village overview no longer crashes when you settle next to a monument.
- The game now actually stops running in the background when the game is finished.
- New players can no longer register when the server is finished.
- Trying to send troops when the game was finished crashed the page, this no longer happens.
What's next?
Now that the Alpha 2 server has concluded, We're further developing the core user experience and supporting technology. We want to offer you:
- A single account for all Aether Kingdoms game servers.
- Seamless, one-click login on each game server.
- Easy swapping between game servers when playing more than one.
- The ability to add duals, so you can play a Kingdom together with one or more friends without having to share a password.
- The technology to later host post-server statistics and meta leaderboards (quickest/slowest wins, biggest battles, fastest second village, etc.), allowing you to show off your accolades.
While there are some finishing touches to be made to the game, the game itself is in a good state. Aether Kingdoms will be back with a new server once the new supporting technology is ready to go. Then it's on to testing and balancing the early game experience after all the feature changes. After that: beta.