AI War: Fleet Command
AI War Classic Official 8.024 Patch Released!
We also hope you'll stop by the campaign for AI War II and see if you think it's worth your time and/or money. We are having an exceedingly hard time reaching our existing players for AI War Classic -- of which we need only about 3% to actually back the kickstarter -- and as such, our kickstarter is stalling.
We have a variety of ways in which we're working on pulling out of the stall, but by far the best option is getting the message out to people who would directly be interested. Hopefully that includes you if you're reading this, but please also spread the word to other players you know who might have missed this!
Best,
Chris Park
Founder and Lead Designer, Arcen Games
Reddit /r/Games AMA with us starting now!
Obviously you can ask us anything in general, but it's nice to have an event for it, too!
AI War II Kickstarter: SPACE ARCHAEOLOGIST tier live, OST now available in select tiers, and 10% funded in 30 hours!
Funding Is Starting Strong!
Our kickstarter for AI War II has now passed 10% funding within its first 30 hours, which seems like it bodes well. But the graph for every game is different, and so we're not going to sit idle just because of a strong start. We can still use all the help that we can get in spreading the word on social media, other sites that would be interested in this sort of game, and of course via gaming news.
Reddit AMA Tomorrow
Speaking of! Tomorrow we're going to be doing another AMA on /r/Games/. It will start at 11am EST, but if you're going to be late feel free to still ask questions -- I'm on reddit every day anyway (not during work!).
So what else is new? Well, we've updated the video for the kickstarter to be a little better (it was already pretty killer). If you've already seen it, it mainly just adds a bit of extra visual and sound effect punch and clarity in a few places, and then a bit of extra music at the end (sneak peek of a vocal track from Stars Beyond Reach, actually).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLtDdZRq4Bk
New Backer Tier!
Our $100 and $300 tiers sold out incredibly quickly, and we're trying to figure out how to handle that -- providing rewards at those levels that you folks will enjoy, but that don't break us in the implementation/fulfillment phases. Thanks for bearing with us!
In the meantime, we've added a new $400 tier: SPACE ARCHAEOLOGIST.
As a Space Archaeologist you get the following benefits shared by all Neinzul Backers:
- Named prominently in the credits as a Neinzul Backer
- Neinzul Backer badge on Arcen forums.
- 5 backer-exclusive AI War II digital wallpapers
- Write your own “message in a bottle” that will be discoverable in-game (subject to approval)
- Two copies of the game in private alpha
- Name an in-game planet
n addition, and EXCLUSIVE to the Space Archaeologist, you get to:
-Work with Blue to design a mysterious alien artifact, then collaborate with Jack to write what we know about them (subject to approval)
Initially controlled by the AI, alien artifacts are variants on the resource-generating derelicts scattered across the galaxy. Capturing an artifact earns you a one time Science bonus, and ongoing attempts to study them sometimes "glitch out", and generate allied ships! These ships aren't pushovers, and while you can't control them, you don't have to pay for them either. The AI won't be happy about losing the artifacts however, and will destroy them rather than let you keep them.
Space Archaeologists will individually work with Blue to design their own artifact, and then work with Jack to explain what we know about it. That might be where it's from or how it was found, secrets of its construction or how it's been used. With this tier you'll be adding one more secret to the Arcenverse, so don't explain too much!
Soundtrack Now Included In All $100+ Tiers!
So many of you asked for this that we worked it out and are now going to be providing high-quality mp3, FLAC, and wav file versions of the AI War II OST for anyone who pledges at least $100. This will include the entire soundtrack, including any stretch goals or other bonus tracks commissioned, so when exactly you get each piece may be staggered a bit.
This was a belated addition due to popular demand, and kickstarter doesn't allow us to change the description of backer tiers after someone has pledged at that level (definitely for the best as a general policy), so we've had to make note of it in the campaign FAQ and in the rewards section (not the sidebar).
If you've read this far, here's a special reward. ;) This is Pablo's reorchestrated and remastered version of the original AI War title theme. Just like Arcen itself, he's come a really long way since 2009, and I continue to be really stunned and impressed with the work he's doing lately.
https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/287038354
Other Changes To The Campaign!
People have been making all sorts of great suggestions.
- We now have a new $40 tier that simply gives you two v1.0 copies of the game (so it's just like getting the $20 tier twice).
- We've added two new videos down in the body of the campaign that show off the far zoom mechanics for the new game as well as the last trailer for the first game.
- Down at the bottom there are now a number of charts detailing our work status on all the major 1.0 features. We're further along on a number of them than folks might have realized, massive design document aside.
That's all for now! I'll have more updates coming up soon, as will other members of the team. Thanks again for all your support, enthusiasm -- and let's not forget trust. With a campaign like this you're trusting that we'll follow through for you, and we have absolutely no intention of letting you down.
Very Best,
Chris Park
Founder and Lead Designer, Arcen Games
AI War II: Kickstarter launches on Monday!
We're finally almost there! If you want a sneak preview of what the campaign looks like (minus some of the graphics and the video), here's a link. Please feel free to offer us feedback on it, and if you want to be notified when the campaign starts on Monday, you can either click the button right on that page, or you can email us at arcengames at gmail dot com and we'll shoot you an email instead.
If you're in the press and you're going to be writing ONE article about this, please wait until Monday. ;) Otherwise we're obviously grateful for any coverage we can get. But we almost didn't post this note today just for fear of that sort of too-early posting.
What else is up?
Well, the AI War II forums continue to be full of awesome discussion. The design document for the game complete enough for us to have a finalized budget, and for you to make an informed decision, although there are still a few areas that we're going to be polishing into next week.
Talk to you soon! For now I need to get back to making that video...
Chris
Click here for the official forum topic on this post.
AI War II - Far Zoom First Look
Here's the first video of the game:
https://youtu.be/uLtDdZRq4Bk
The kickstarter for AI War II is coming up in the next week! If you want to be notified of it by email, please send a note to arcengames at gmail dot com and we'll be happy to.
Our forums have a ton of information about what's going on and how you can contribute (non-financially) prior to the kickstarter if you wish to.
And our public design document is huge and still growing. The latter will be finished up (for purposes of v1.0 specs) within the next 3 days.
I'll be around on the forums plenty in the coming days, or I'll hopefully catch you later this week when we launch the Kickstarter!
-Chris
AI War II Music Theme Teaser
Pablo getting prepped for the newly reorchestrated AI War II theme. The kickstarter for this sequel to AI War Classic is launching in the next 1-3 weeks.
- Email arcengames at gmail dot com if you want to be notified when it goes live.
- If you want to participate in discussions about the growing design document for the game, please visit our forums and join in!
Lots of stuff is happening fast, and we'll have more to share with you soon!
Best,
Chris
AI War II: Design Document First Unveiling Is Now!
The largest segment so far is detailing the technical advancements of the sequel (most of which are already in place). It's actually kind of insane to see how far things have come from where we left AI War "Classic" in 2014. It was already quite long in the tooth by our standards then, being very rooted in a 2009-based code architecture that had been remodeled enough times that we couldn't really go further with that.
Squads
This document does start by going into the rationale behind ship squads, which are a change with major performance-boosting ramifications and that should be able to yield an increased feeling of giant space battles more along the lines of the pre-Unity battles in AI War Classic. Feelings in this particular area may run a little strong since it is a pretty big shift (although familiar to many RTS games), so there's a lot of math and explanations there to hopefully make it clear just how freaking awesome this change is and why you should be happy about it.
The TLDR is that it will make your game run more smoothly even while we are able to do more complex things.
Multi-Part, But Not Modular Ships
This is the first example of something that is being changed that will have an impact on a lot of units in the game. Based on discussions with players on the forum, we should basically have the best of what modular ships offered before (the multi-part bit), but without the fiddly interface for customizing them during the game.
Of course, given the moddable nature of the new game, you can customize ships to your heart's content anyway. And there are space platforms that are a thing that have been designed but not yet written up, and those will also scratch that same itch...
Other Bits
There are a lot of other sections of the document that are just stubs for now, and they will be filled in next week. First of all focusing on the largest structural changes, since those require the most discussion with players. Then moving into smaller and smaller topics until we have a document that we feel is complete and correct.
Kickstarter
Depending on how long it takes us to reach that "complete and correct" status with the design document, and how long some of our prototypes for a few things in the new game take, we will be heading to kickstarter with this in 2-4 weeks. The game already has a remarkably complete base in terms of the multithreading, the networking (minus transport layer), and so on. The status of items are noted in the document above, and quite a lot of the trickiest things are already in the "complete" camp.
That said, there's still a ton to do, so it's not like the game is going to be rolling into early access tomorrow. But the goal is for us to be able to show you the vision for what this is (visually and otherwise), concretely show you what is planned (design document), and give you an accurate timeline for completion (with appropriate buffer).
If you're interested in hearing about the kickstarter when it goes live, you can always email us at arcengames at gmail dot com.
I'll see you all Monday!
Chris
Click here for the official forum thread on this post.
BundleStars: $3 USD for complete AI War bundle
AI War Facebook page
Arcen Games' Facebook page
Our community forums
Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT
AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar
It has been a long while since the last update, as the developers have been fully focused on pushing Stars Beyond Reach to release for July, but there's a bundle for the AI War collection over at BundleStars that includes the following:
- Base game
Expansions:
- Zenith Remnant
- Children of Neinzul
- Light of the Spire
- Ancient Machines
- Vengeance of the Machine
- Destroyer of Worlds
The sale lasts for a little over seven days from this posting, and for only $2.99 USD.
:KissAss:
The Winter 2014 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.
ArcenGames Sale on GamersGate - Up to 80% off Through Jan 11th
AI War Facebook page
Arcen Games' Facebook page
Our community forums
Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT
AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar
Most of Arcen's titles are on promotion over at GamersGate with heavy discounts; you can find them all with this search term! GamersGate does provide serials that can be registered on the Steam platform too, and as usual with games by Arcen, they can also be ran standalone.
Thanks to Vivisector 9999 for the heads up. :8bitheart:
AI War 2014 Collection (up to Vengeance of the Machine): $3.40 USD
AI War: $2.00
Any single expansion: $1.00
Children of Neinzul: $0.40
Skyward Collapse Collection: $1.40
Bionic Dues: $2.00
Shattered Haven: $2.00
A Valley Without Wind 1 & 2 and soundtrack: $4.00
The *NEW* Winter 2014 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.
AI War Official 8.020-8.021 - fatal error in gc fix
AI War Facebook page
Arcen Games' Facebook page
Our community forums
Report bugs and suggestions on MantisBT
AI War web IRC / irc.appliedirc.com / #aiwar
Changelog may be found here
This update fixes the "fatal error in gc" problem introduced from last night's 8.020 update which implemented asynchronous disk calls for users with multiple network adapters afflicted with slow loading speed.
The *NEW* Winter 2014 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.