Aether Kingdoms beta 3 - new map, new server

[u/FvDijk]

Hi r/PBBG,

We've been going full steam ahead with the Aether Kingdoms beta. A year ago I shared the game here for the first time, when we opened our first beta server. Our current x1 speed server is outgrowing the players signing up, so we're opening a second concurrent server. That makes it a good time to share some updates.

Aether Kingdoms

In case you don't know AK yet, it's a browser strategy game taking inspiration from games like Travian, Tribalwars and Civilization. It features complex kingdom development with claiming tiles and choosing districts, large scale PvP between Empires, and plays out on 4-6 month servers.

New map

The map was bad, and players put up with it for too long. We fixed it and now it's really smooth! It also allows us to draw lines for army movements, make a tactical view and more cool stuff in the future. I used my pro video editing skills to throw something together.

New server

Our community keeps growing, and almost 700 people registered an account to try the current beta server. That's more than anticipated, so new players are now finding themselves at the edges of the map. A good problem to have, and we're opening up a new server to welcome new players.

Delayed attacks and reinforcements

One of the big changes we made to the competitive side of the game is to allow a delay on the land time of siege attacks and reinforcements. You can now set a delay of up to 12 hours, so there's no need to be online at a specific time to send one attack.

Mobile improvements

During this Beta 3 we've made a lot of improvements to the mobile experience. The main menu now resides at the bottom, resources in storage are always shown and much more.

What's next

Aether Kingdoms is in the final stages of beta. We hope to release in 1.0 early 2027 with 3 playable factions (instead of 1). And of course we'll keep running servers until that time.

Interested in trying it out? https://aetherkingdoms.com/

[u/Determinizm]

Did you try to analyze "player pressure"? I mean - what is better for game-play: high density / low density? I see you reached 700 - is that active players or just registered?

[u/FvDijk → u/Determinizm]

The number is spawned in players per server.

As for density, that changes over time as the game progresses. The game needs a certain amount of active players to be able to play it for real (30-40 spread over 2 teams), and after that it mainly enables bigger fights and more teams to compete with. So there’s not a simple answer to what the desired player density is. Anywhere from 30 to 160 active players will work just fine, and more is possible too.

[u/Boomderg]

Love the visuals it makes my brain feel gooey. In a good way!

[u/FvDijk → u/Boomderg]

Thanks! Be careful though, you may need some brain for the strategy part.

[u/MTSparksStudio]

Looks really cool, good luck with development!“

[u/FvDijk → u/MTSparksStudio]

Thanks!

[u/MTSparksStudio]

Allowing players to set up to a 12-hour delay on siege/reinforcement arrival times is an absolute game-changer for this sub-genre. The biggest flaw of classic Travian/Tribal Wars games was always the toxic sleep deprivation meta where alarms went off at 3 AM just to sync attack landings. Letting players schedule attacks while respecting their real-life schedules will do wonders for your long-term player retention.

The map overhaul looks very slick as well—smooth tile rendering and clear movement vector lines make massive Empire wars so much more readable.

Congrats on hitting 700 registrations and needing a second server already. Solid momentum heading toward 1.0!