Server

server is an independent game instance of Aether Kingdoms. Each server has its own map, economy, and player rankings, and runs for a fixed period until a win condition is met. Progress and resources are not shared between servers; a player may participate in multiple servers simultaneously.

Each server has a speed multiplier that scales resource production, construction times, and research durations. A speed-2 server runs at twice the pace of a standard server. The speed of a server is fixed at launch and displayed in the server selection screen.

Server Progression

A server can be divided into 5 phases: the start phase, early game, mid game, late game and endgame. The game escalates with each phase, opening up more powerful objectives to bigger Kingdoms with stronger armies and more advanced technologies.

Start phase

The start phase consists of the first 2 to 3 weeks of server's lifespan. Players are developing their Kingdoms for warfare down the line by settling strategically important locations and clustering up with their Empire.

At the beginning of the server everyone spawns with a single village, no technologies researched and no armies. The first goal for most players is to reach a second village as soon as possible, while developing their spawn village in the process. That's because a second village means double the development. Making strategic use of the task rewards in this phase can help speed up your growth.

Many different builds can be employed at the start phase. From turning your spawn village into a Town without settling to settling up to 5 villages before tiering up to a Town. By the end of the 3th week you can also expect there to be some Cities from people rushing a double district. By the end of the start phase, players have laid a foundation for the long term, are building up bigger armies and some have begun expansion through conquest rather than settling.

During the start phase players tend to focus on individual development, strategic positioning and preserving army for the first objectives.

Early game

The early game runs from week 2/3 up to week 8, when the Landmark objectives appear. The main focus of the early game for Kingdoms is further development of their own village cluster and army, while Empires focus on securing their area and start to push their borders outward.

Mid game

The mid game runs from week 8, when Landmarks spawn, to week 14, when Monuments can be built. In the mid game Kingdoms keep expanding and building up their resource production, infrastructure and armies. At the Empire level, the game gets more heated. Battles revolve around capturing Landmarks to hold or interrupt Prestige generation, conquering villages on the front line and doing siege damage in the 'safe' backline of the enemy. Empires will also start to strategically settle to reinforce held objectives or other important locations.

Near the final stages of the mid game the Monument sites will spawn and need to be held in preparation for building them up. The more of these you hold, the better the Empire can set itself up for victory.

Late game

The late game kicks off when the Monuments can be built and ends when the Artifacts spawn. Each Monument generates 10 Prestige the first time it's completed after paying its 50 million resource cost. Destroying a completed monument interrupts its Prestige generation with a 20 million price tag to restore it.

Battles between Empires will shift towards conquering a presence near objectives, interrupting Prestige generation, damaging infrastructure to slow down rebuilding armies, and other strategic goals. With the Monuments, the race to victory has begun.

If an Empire is dominant or there are a limited number of competing Empires, then the server can end in this phase of the game.

Endgame

In week 20 the Artifacts spawn, meaning it's the beginning of the end. Artifacts are the most powerful objectives, generating 1 Prestige per day on x1 speed. Holding more artifacts than your opponent can solidify your victory or upset any lead gained from holding monuments. All bets are off at this stage and there's nothing holding Empires back from all-out warfare.

Win condition

Aether Kingdoms currently has a single win condition for all servers: a server ends when the first Empire reaches 250 Prestige.

Server history

Server	Type	Speed	Status	Notes	Winner
Alpha 1	Alpha	x1	Concluded	Not full server. Testing Kingdom, Empire and combat features.
Alpha 2	Alpha	x1	Concluded	First full server run with limited users. Included objectives, events, siege and conquest.
Plains 1	Beta	x1	Concluded	First open beta for Aether Kingdoms.	EMP
Forest 1	Beta	x3	Concluded	Second full beta to test speed servers.	River
Start 1	Beta	x1	Concluded	Not a full server. Short server to gather information specifically about early game techniques and balance.
Start 2	Beta	x1	Concluded	Not a full server. 4-week runtime to further balance early game.
Plains 2	Beta	x1	Ongoing	Full game server on the beta 3 version with all new content.