The first week of the beta server has passed. 164 accounts were created and 15 Kingdoms settled their second villages! The reception and feedback has been great, though a bit overwhelming at times. Here's some screenshots and the patch notes.

Screenshot of the map with an ally and multiple enemies Screenshot of the map with an ally and multiple enemies

Features added

  • A new event type was added: Point of Interest. These events function the same as the yellow supply events, except that they spawn in when an area is full of other events. This allows for a steady supply of the popular supply events.
  • New and respawning players now spawn with 100 culture per day the game has been running. This is a bit less than the 120 a non-upgraded player gets, but allows for easier catching up. Respawning players will have their culture set to the allotted amount if they have less than that when they respawn.
  • New and respawning players now spawn with 1 Settlers unit after day 21 of the server has been reached.
  • Email functionality for the Aether Account is now live. You can reset your password, change email and all that good stuff now.

Screenshot of a point of interest on the Map A point of interest on the Map

Balance changed

  • Horseman speed has been returned from 12 to 14 fields per hour. This is more in line with the small speed buff infantry received in alpha 2.
  • Increased the maximum village queue size from 5 to 6 based on popular request for a bit more downtime in building up a village.
  • Increased the maximum allowed Science and Culture to be added to the queue at once from 2 to 4 times the hourly production of that village. A village that produces 20 Culture/hr could queue 40 Culture, and that's 80 Culture now.
  • Players spawn 2-4 tiles apart now instead of 2 tiles minimum, to add more average distance and variability in spawning pattern.
  • The culture/science queue duration per resource was smoothed out to make lower production increases have a more noticeable impact on the curve.
  • Added 1 stone to Water and 1 iron to Swamp tiles to bring them in line with others on resource count.

Improvements made

  • The UI for the building queue was improved to better show that buildings consume food and add population.
  • Updated descriptions in Aether Store and the Help page to mention that Aether can also be earned from Tasks.
  • Culture and Science production have been swapped on the left sidebar to be more consistent with other orderings.
  • Top 10 participants with 0 values are now hidden.
  • Events spawn on a more fine-grained grid now, ensuring players don't get surrounded by a ring of distant events if they farm a bit more actively.
  • Event tooltips were improved to show event size and reward types on hover.
  • The map tooltip was slightly moved to make hovering over the next tile easier.
  • Your currently selected village is now saved on reload.
  • The building level of a fully upgraded building for that tier of town is now darkened.
  • Swapped defense against cavalry and archers on the Units Help page to be consistent with other orderings.

Screenshot of darkened levels for fully upgraded buildings Darkened levels for fully upgraded buildings

Bugs squashed

  • You can send merchants to events during beginner protection now.
  • Made the Empire News widget visible when there is no news post yet. Now a first one can be added.
  • The village data is no longer reloaded twice in a row, causing timers not to show on the village overview.
  • The village overview now properly shows the timers when village data take a bit longer to load (yes, two bugs on one thing, it's very fun).
  • Email errors are now handled more gracefully if they occur.
  • If a player spawns on a Defend event, it now disappears.
  • Using builders when queueing culture now gives the intended amount of production bonus.
  • Hid the game won widget from the server timeline when the game isn't finished.
  • Supply events no longer return extra resources to the player when sending too many resources.
  • Culture is now refunded when cancelling settlers.
  • Supply events that turned into an Aether Deposit caused a report not to be generated if multiple players participated. This is no longer the case.
  • No players should get extra merchants above their cap anymore.

I probably forgot a few small things, but this is most of it for sure.

Hope to see you in game! Play Aether Kingdoms now!