AI War: Fleet Command
AI War 8.0 Launches alongside Expansion 6: Destroyer of Worlds (and Linux Support!)
Biggest on the radar is the addition of the new "hacking" mechanic which gives the player several abilities which can be extremely useful but also quite risky. Hack wisely, and you can turn defeat into victory. Hack foolishly, and you can turn humanity into hamburger. The idea came out of long discussions with players on improving the relationship between metal and crystal. Those two mechanics had become far too similar, and ultimately the idea of merging them in favor a new radically-different mechanic found a lot of support from the community.
"Salvage" is another major new mechanic based on years of community feedback. Basically if you lost your whole fleet in an attack it could take a long time to rebuild but often there wasn't much actual danger. In a game where 8 hours is a "short" campaign, players don't want to be stuck spending real "wall-clock" time without much actual "game" happening. So salvage allows the AI to harvest the remains of your ships lost in its territory to build a "reprisal" force that threatens you after a fleet-wipe, and allows you to harvest the remains of AI ships lost in your territory to accelerate your rebuilding. This led to a somewhat bumpy ride balance-wise but it's shaken out pretty well by now and has significantly improved enjoyment of the game.
Champions have also been the subject of quite a bit of player feedback since they were introduced in the fourth expansion. Some people really liked them, some people really did not. One of the biggest issues was how the nebula scenarios (the main way you could improve champions) were so disconnected from the rest of the game. So we've added an optional alternate way to improve your Champion units that's much more aligned with playing normally. There's probably more to be done on this topic, but what's been done thus far has helped.
"If anyone beats difficulty 10, that's a bug" is one of our old jokes with the community. Actually, we laugh when we say it but we're not joking. Several players have managed to beat Diff 10 over the years and the refinements to prevent this (without being too heavy-handed) have continued. Several AI improvements were made for 8.0, especially it's pushing an advantage during a large-scale attack. Balance dials have also been cranked to even-more-painful levels, and as of this writing there are no confirmed reports of a "normal" diff 10 win since the last round of related changes. The gauntlet's right there on the ground, folks.
Player feedback (and our own devious minds) prompted tons of other changes in 8.0 (counter-attack posts being made optional comes to mind, and many turret caps becoming per-planet), but this account has to stop somewhere. Oh, and let's not forget the engine upgrade and the addition of linux support :)
Have fun! (Here's the discussion on the official forums, by the way.)
Also, check out our awesome new trailer for version 8.0!
AI War: Fleet Command 8.0 Trailer
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AI War 8.0 and its sixth expansion Destroyer of Worlds arrive August 18th on PC, Mac and Linux. Check out the new trailer we've put together to mark the announcement.
Since there seems to be no way to embed videos in announcement posts anymore, view the beautiful trailer here!
The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.
AI War Beta 7.048-7.052 - Native-Linux support, tutorial revised for new mechanics, and bugfixes and balance changes
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Please see the original post here
Changelog may be found here
This one is a break from your (ir)regularly-scheduled bugfixes and polish to bring you a large engine upgrade and native-linux support. NOTE: as of this writing distribution of the linux build is still being worked out.
We’d been planning to release 8.0/DoW during the week of August 4th and then wait until a week or so after 8.0 to start the beta cycle on that upgrade, but the engine-upgrade/linux-porting has gone better and faster than expected for our other titles (including older ones like Tidalis and AVWW1). So instead we’re bumping the release to the week of August 18th to allow a couple weeks of extra testing.
If you survive the bugs, please report them :)
By the way, this includes our new cross-platform updater (the old one did not support linux), so the update process will look somewhat different after this particular version. It will be faster, too.
The new ships from Destroyer of Worlds have had their far-zoom icons updated, thanks to community member HitmanN.
The tutorial’s been updated for 8.0, and now includes a section on Hacking.
And there’s also a goodly chunk of balance changes and bugfixes. Including actually getting Line Place working correctly. Really! I think.
Update: 7.049 to fix a bug where the music would play one track and stop.
Update: 7.050 to fix several issues with sounds playing very loudly and distortedly and with images not loading on linux.
Update: 7.051 to fix an issue in the prior version that prevented OSX from loading the game.
Update: 7.052 to make the textboxes work, and improve the sound effects stacking issue even further.
The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.
This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 6.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 6.000 or later, you can download that here.
AI War Beta 7.047 - polishing; line place fix and general bugfixes
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Please see the original post here
Changelog may be found here
This one is another coat of polish for the new expansion and 8.0 in general, so nothing earthshaking here. That said, there are changes I think will make some folks pretty happy:
- The galaxy-display-modes for fabricators and golems are now much nicer to use, with both showing the names of the actual units on the galaxy map rather than you having to mouseover to see what specifically is there, and with the fabs mode combining the old three separate filters into the one (and adding in the Core Turret Controllers, too).
- Line-place is now much better for placing multiple parallel lines at once, as a common-case for mines is to put three lines side-by-side. Doing three lines separately tends to cause the second and third lines to only place every other mine due to collision, and also takes longer, so now you can place all 3 (or more) lines at once and none of them will collide with other mines placed in the same action.
- The Ally Roaming Enclave commands now have a GUI rather than just being chat commands. It’s not a very pretty GUI, but it’s a lot better than… well, chat commands.
- The AI’s response to the Exodian Blade will now be less dependent on how fast you get through that progression’s earlier phases, which should help us be able to actually balance the final phase (though it may well not be there yet).
The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.
This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 6.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 6.000 or later, you can download that here.
AI War Beta 7.046 - text [re]clarifications and miscellaneous bugfixes and minor changes
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Please see the original post here
Changelog may be found here
This one is yet more polish work for the new expansion, and also for the rest of the game in preparation for the 8.0 official release.
That means almost entirely bugfixes, balancing, etc. Including a lot of text work and updating the Objectives screen logic, etc. Here’s what’s left (not yet done) between now and 8.0:
- We want to do a new trailer for the whole game. If you have any saves that show the game being awesome (whether that’s the AI being clever, the explosions being massive, or whatever; up to you) please send them our way with instructions on where/how to see the awesomeness :)
- I need to go through the tutorial again; I believe I’ve kept it mostly accurate thus far but another pass is necessary, and more importantly it needs to cover at least the basics of Hacking. And mention salvage, for that matter.
- I need to add entries on the steam side for the new achievements.
- Further bugfixes and balance changes based on what you tell me needs dealt with for 8.0. Generally this means avoiding big changes, but you get the idea.
- Adding in the awesome new music from Pablo. Probably my favorite part of each expansion :)
Enjoy!
The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.
This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 6.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 6.000 or later, you can download that here.
AI War Beta 7.045 - polishing and balancing
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Please see the original post here
Changelog may be found here
This one is more polish work for the new expansion, and also for the rest of the game.
- Fallen Spire has been substantially rebalanced in favor of powerful capital ships (on the human side) and powerful FS exos (on the AI side), and away from its naturally high AIP causing runaway wave sizes (due to reinforcement redirection).
- The Galaxy Map Filters have been reorganized and improved somewhat; more work needed there but it’s a start.
- And a ton of miscellaneous stuff, notes linked above for the curious.
The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.
This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 6.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 6.000 or later, you can download that here.
AI War 7.043-7.044 - minor bugfixes and balance changes
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Please see the original post here
Changelog may be found here
This one is mainly bugfixes and balance work for the new expansion, but also some base game stuff.
Not a lot to say here except to read the above-linked release notes if you want to know the details. Partly just making this an update-with-blog-post (as opposed to yet another hotfix on the previous forum release thread) to make sure the new blogging system works, etc :)
Update: 7.044 is out to hotfix a bug in the pathfinding amendments (to make it not prefer nomads so much) that basically broke pathfinding in a lot of cases. Whoops!
The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.
This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 6.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 6.000 or later, you can download that here.
Announcing AI War: Destroyer of Worlds
When in doubt, use bigger warheads.
AI War: Destroyer of Worlds, the sixth expansion pack for AI War: Fleet Command, focuses on two new optional features:
Nomad Planets introduces dynamic topology to AI War for the first time, giving the player new challenges and opportunities beyond the previously-static wormhole network. One of the Nomads also holds a secret weapon of truly dire power (that gives the expansion its title, hint hint).
The Exodian Blade is a powerful alternate way-to-win, but getting there is a multi-stage journey with a great deal of desperate fighting once things get going.
Beyond those two key features, this expansion also adds:
* 8 new AI types, from the humorous/annoying "Kite Flier" and "Cowardly" to the monomaniacal "Starship Fanatic" to the aptly named "Brutal". There's also "Mime". Never trust mimes.
* A new "Encapsulated" map style (screenshot).
* 4 new Bonus Ship Types, including the Neinzul Combat Carrier (with Beam Drones, Rail Drones, Spider Drones, and Grav Drones) and the Maw-gone-mad Powerslaver.
* 2 new AI Guardian types, including the Cobmat Carrier Guardian (so humans don't get to have all the ludicrous-drone fun).
* A new "Preemption" optional AI Plot that lets the AI start taking more direct action against you from the start.
* More awesome music from Pablo Vega! (that's still being worked on, but will be added for the official release)
A more in-depth look at the expansion can be found here.
AI War: Destroyer of Worlds is slated for official release in August 2014, and we'll be running a closed beta until then. If you're interested in testing and providing feedback on the expansion during the closed beta, please send me (keith.lamothe) a PM on our forums.
We'll be contacting the first wave of testers that have already signed up later this afternoon.
In other news, we've also added Steam Trading Cards for AI War. Enjoy!
AI War Beta 7.036-7.040 - bugfix and balance changes
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Please see the original post here
Changelog may be found here
This one is more bugfixes and balance work. Important stuff, especially the metal/energy-related changes, but just polish.
What's more than polish is the upcoming expansion, which we'll announce with actual details tomorrow (Thursday, probably noonish eastern time).
We'll be doing a closed beta that will run until the expansion's official release (alongside the 8.0 offficial release) in early August. If you're interested in being part of the beta please PM me (keith.lamothe) on the forums.
Update: 7.037 is out with some text updates specific to the new expansion.
Update: 7.038 is out to hotfix some problems with unlocking the mkII/III versions of the bonus ship types from the new expansion.
Update: 7.039 is out to fix several bugs discovered early in the new expansion's beta, so the testers can proceed without them in the way.
Update: 7.040 is out with another batch of fixes for the new expansion's beta.
The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.
This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 6.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 6.000 or later, you can download that here.
AI War Beta 7.034-7.035 - balance changes to spire cities, champion alt progression, and hacking; various other fixes
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Please see the original post here
Changelog may be found here
- Hacking used to scale just with your hacking balance, but this could lead to hacks not getting more dangerous). Then it was changed to scale just with hacking-spent, but that got uncontrollably dangerous past a certain point no matter your hacking balance). So now it's something of a middle ground, with the balance reducing the response again but with a minimum response that increases with hacking-spent. Long story short you shouldn't be stuck with large hacking balances that you can't spend without the sky falling, but the response should also never be anemic. We'll see; more feedback is of course welcome (and needed).
- Spire Cities are now much more fearsome, to correct for years of numeric creep among non-superweapon units. This is one of those changes made easier by the recent global stat-downscaling. The AI looks pretty unhappy about this.
- Champion Alt-Progress is now much more streamlined in how you get new module/hull/mod-fort/etc unlocks: it just all comes through gaining levels now (which is done entirely through gaining knowledge), rather than needing to capture/hack certain things. This is a more passive approach, but ultimately the normal-progress approach of nebula scenarios to gain XP and unlocks is the "active" option, and alt-progress is just for folks who'd like to have their champion toys without having to go radically out of their way to get them. So we'll see how that goes. For any of you interested in the alt-progress approach to champions, please do let us know how it feels.
And there's a bunch of various bugfixes and smaller balance changes, etc, including fixing some bugs preventing the loading of some older saves (from 3.x or earlier days).
Update: 7.035 is out to hotfix a null-exception bug in last version's attempt to fix thing with exo ships with cloaked targets camping the cloaked target.
The Winter 2013 AI War Sortie Bulletin topic at the community hub is a place to find other players.
This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 6.000 or later. When you launch the game, you'll see the notice of the update having been found if you're connected to the Internet at the time. If you don't have 6.000 or later, you can download that here.