2011: An AI War Odyssey

[MuttersomeTaxicab]

Hey all,
I've been toying with doing a long-running blog of an AI War game for a while now. With Light of the Spire hitting steam yesterday, it seems like now's a good a time as any.


The purpose of this is firstly to dispel the idea that AI War is some impenetrable beast of RTS madness.
Also, it'll be written from the perspective of someone who is relatively new to the game and isn't hip to all the numbers rolling behind the scenes. Hopefully that combination of cluelessness, humour and enthusiasm will encourage others to give it a shot. I know Rock Paper Shotgun tried a similar run, but stopped after one entry.

Admittedly, I am not an expert when it comes to AI War. I think the game is terrific and a constantly imposing challenge in my Steam list, but I feel like this will motivate me to more thoroughly explore the game's myriad features.

Anyways, any feedback would be great. I just started with a brief intro and basic broad strokes history of Arcen and combined it with an unhealthy fixation on attack bears.

http://sortofaprotestblog.wordpress.com/2011/02/15/2011-an-ai-war-odyssey-day-0/

[keith.lamothe]

Thank you very much for the support   I'll be following those posts.

[MuttersomeTaxicab]

Thanks, Keith!

If this goes well, I'm hoping to do something similar for A Valley Without Wind.

So far, I don't really have a posting schedule set. I'm hoping 1-2 posts a week, but we'll see how things shake out.

[chemical_art]

Attack bears from RA3? They are nice, but my personal favorite pack of dogs in RA1. Those rabies affected dogs would leap 12 feet away to always attack the enemy's throat, then they would proceed to jump another 12 feet to hit another guy the very same second! If three dogs could survive to leap toward a pack of 20 enemies, the dogs would come out on top as they jump from enemy to enemy! I was very saddened that my super dogs were nerfed in the Red Alerts thereafter.

Also welcome fellow C&C fan.

[MuttersomeTaxicab]

Attack bears from RA3? They are nice, but my personal favorite pack of dogs in RA1. Those rabies affected dogs would leap 12 feet away to always attack the enemy's throat, then they would proceed to jump another 12 feet to hit another guy the very same second! If three dogs could survive to leap toward a pack of 20 enemies, the dogs would come out on top as they jump from enemy to enemy! I was very saddened that my super dogs were nerfed in the Red Alerts thereafter.

Also welcome fellow C&C fan.

I loved the attack dogs in RA1, too, but felt awful when they were inevitably crushed under uncaring tank treads. At least when the attack bears take on a tank, it plays out (at least in my mind) as this crazy epic battle: THAT FUCKIN' BEAR AIN'T PUTTING UP WITH NO TANK SHIT IN THIS HOUSE.

Either way, I cut my teeth on RTSes with the C&C series. Whether it was killing dinosaurs in vanilla C&C or killing giant ants in RA, I was constantly having a blast. Haven't really tried C&C 4. Gave it a wide berth after all the awful reviews/janky DRM built into it. On paper, it still sounded like an alright idea, I suppose.

At any rate, I still find myself looking to C&C even as I play other RTSes these days.

[keith.lamothe]

FYI, around here it is considered proper etiquette for Attack Bears to shred tanks, but even they may not use the f-word

[Entrenched Homperson]

But it adds so much Color! I like color.

[MuttersomeTaxicab]

FYI, around here it is considered proper etiquette for Attack Bears to shred tanks, but even they may not use the f-word

Haha, my bad. I do tend to get a little bit of sailormouth from time to time.

Also, posted another update about the setup of the game. Will be (actually) getting into some serious gameplay over the weekend.