We've been working on a cool new feature to help you keep on top of your account. Where is your storage overflowing? What queues need attention? Do I have a research queued? The advisor will give you an answer! Oh, and we're also modifying how artifacts work.

Feature: Advisor

Lord Marcus Stonegarden has been idly sitting by and observing your gameplay. Over the last year, he's seen what you've been doing and where you struggle. Now, he's decided it's time to speak his mind about how your Kingdom is managed.

img.png Lord Marcus Stonegarden lights up when he has something to say

The advisor checks in on your Kingdom to see what immediate things need your attention. Not everything will be shown at once, he suggests items in a given order:

  • Starvation warning, always shown if starvation is imminent
  • No active research or research queued, always shown if no research is active
  • Managing your villages, showing the highest priority:
    • Overflowing storage (<10% capacity remaining)
    • Empty village queues
    • Able to claim a district
    • No project at the end of shorter queue
    • Able to complete a task
    • Nothing needs your attention right now

img_1.png The advisor page with at the top the immediate action and below that strategy tips

On top of that, he's also available for strategic advice. For new players, there will be a guideline on settling a second village. And for everyone, the following advice will be available, tailored to your specific circumstances:

  • Which village's population to develop to claim more tiles.
  • Getting started with a second village.
  • Join an Empire.
  • Hold a minimum amount of army based on your Kingdom size and game length.
  • You have (almost) enough culture to expand or tier up, so you should prepare for doing so.
  • You have enough culture to expand or tier up.
  • Your Aether reserves are low/high.

With the advisor, we hope to accomplish two things. First, to guide new players towards the correct decisions without constraining choices. Second, we want to make it easier to stay on top of everything for your Kingdom. We're still in open beta, so let us know what you think!

Balance changed: Artifacts

As we're playing our third full round of Aether Kingdoms, it has become apparent that the game loses momentum after the monuments activate and are built. Our analysis is that the period between the monuments activating and the artifacts spawning is too long.

We're making the following changes to artifacts to keep momentum going and start the true endgame of Aether Kingdoms earlier:

  • Monuments now give 5 Prestige (was 10) on first completion. The 5 Prestige per week when completed remains unchanged. This will not affect servers where monuments already spawned.
  • Artifacts will now spawn 2 weeks after Monuments activate.
  • Artifacts will generate their first Prestige 3 days after capture, after which it'll generate 1 Prestige per day. This will make conquering artifacts to delay the opponent more worthwhile.

We've polled the change with all competing Empires on Plains 2, and they are in favour of starting the endgame earlier. That's why we're rolling out this change in 2 stages:

  1. Artifacts will spawn on day 119, 3 weeks earlier than before. That means they will spawn on Plains 2 at Thursday 15 October 2026 14:00 UTC
  2. After Artifacts have spawned on Plains 2, we will change the spawn day to 112. That means Hills 1 will see the Artifacts spawn 2 weeks after monument activation.

Hopefully, these changes makes the endgame a more satisfying fight. And a big thank you for the Plains 2 community for being open to trying out a change to the rules of the game.

img_2.png Advisor starvation warning

Improvements made

  • Logging in or restarting the account now lands you on the village economy page. This should be more welcoming to new players.
  • The Empire members list now uses separators for large population numbers.
  • Neutral villages have a lighter gray border now to make them more visible on the map.
  • The browser tab now shows the server name in the title, making it easier to keep track when playing multiple servers.
  • Added a quick link to add the defensive army at objectives to the simulator.
  • Defensive army movements on the map, when line mode is active, now have better distinguishable colours (but it's still green on green when not in the tactical view).
  • Added a success message about the delayed arrival when turning in a task that rewards units.

Bugs squashed

  • When a user removes a sitter, the sitter now gets a message with the correct username.
  • The map canvas no longer gets blurred on some devices.
  • Defending from a native attack now shows the proper arrow colour.
  • When inspecting the incoming attacks on a village from the map, the aggressor's village link now correctly centers the map on that village.

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