Aetas is out in Early Access
It's here: Aetas is now available in Early Access on Steam. The game is playable from start to finish: seven ages from the Stone Age to the Industrial Age, six peoples that each play their own way, six campaigns with 48 missions plus historical battles, skirmish against the computer and online multiplayer for up to eight players.
It isn't finished yet. The art keeps getting better, and the balance between the peoples and the ages needs real matches. That's why Early Access: every report in the Steam discussions gets read, and every update comes with notes like these.
A free demo is on its way
Know someone who wants to try it first? A free demo is coming soon to the same Steam page, with the first three ages, skirmish against the computer, the tutorial, the challenges, the first three Greek missions and the battle of Cannae. Progress and saved games from the demo carry over to the full game.
New in 0.7.0: a tutorial in seven chapters
- The tutorial now has seven chapters instead of five. The first five gained gold and mining camps, the rally point, giving orders in a row with Shift, weapons research and turning the view.
- New chapter 6, Defence and siege: diagonal and round walls, locking a gate, dragging a whole row of towers, a battering ram against an enemy tower, the Iron Age, the hospital and the fort.
- New chapter 7, Town and overview: the market, the university, tearing down buildings, the scoreboard, diplomacy and pausing. Chapters 6 and 7 can also be started on their own.
- The last step now explains how you really win a match: destroy every building that trains units.
- The first time you start Aetas, you're asked whether you want to begin with the tutorial. If you do, the computer is set to Easy for your first matches. You can change this in the settings.
- The tutorial achievement still only needs chapters 1 to 5.
Troy, Marathon, Thermopylae and Cannae, reworked
- The Wooden Horse: rams are no longer available (the walls are too strong for them). Once you have a workshop, the horse needs 1000 wood before the gate opens, and the workshop explains what it's for. The Trojans ride out a little earlier.
- Marathon: the battle now has two stages. First drive off the Persian archers in front; they fall back to their main line when they take losses. Then the main line marches on you. Their cavalry returns after five minutes and attacks straight away.
- Thermopylae: a new wave comes every minute, each larger than the last, and at the end Xerxes sends his Immortals. Your scout warns you when Ephialtes comes over the mountain path, and you can see his men coming down.
- Cannae: the Romans advance right away. Close the ring behind the legions and they deal 30% less damage. Men near Hannibal deal 15% more damage, shown as a golden circle around him.
- Heroes like Leonidas and Hannibal wear a small golden crown and show their name when you select them, so you know who to protect.
- Saved games of these four missions from an earlier version can no longer be loaded.
A map in every briefing
- Every campaign mission and historical battle now shows a hand-drawn parchment map in its briefing, with arrows for the armies and your objectives. On smaller screens the map sits next to the text.
- Missions and battles show how hard they are, from one to three swords, in the mission list and the briefing.
- Hard is a little milder in missions and battles: 120% enemies instead of 135%.
- Missions and battles remember the difficulty you picked last time.
Computer armies at your walls
- Computer armies no longer stand still in front of a gate or wall. They don't wait for slow siege weapons far behind them, and they break through gates and walls instead of being driven back by tower fire again and again.
- Computer armies with battering rams no longer squeeze one by one through a small gap in your wall, straight into your towers. They widen the gap first and then storm in together with their rams.
Smaller things
- After an error, the main menu shows where the log file is, with a button to report the problem.
Thank you to everyone who put Aetas on their wishlist, sent a message or played along. See you on the battlefield.