Noob: How do I unload transports???

[Fuxoft]

I am sure this must sound very stupid but I am playing through the last "big" tutorial (where you can lose) and there is an instruction to "load fleet into transport, carry them somewhere and the unload them". I loaded the fleet after some experimentation (I think it was Ctrl + Right Click). However, there is no explanation HOW TO UNLOAD THE UNITS FROM THE TRANSPORT. I've read the PDF manual included with the game and the word "unload" doesn't appear anywhere in it. I finally found the line saying "Unload" in the "Keyboard shortcuts section" but there was no key defined for this action. So I defined it as U (maybe destroying the previously defined shortcut for the U key).

I am playing the up-to-date official version (not beta).

Also, when I tried starting new campaign, some planets on the offered map (before actually starting the game) had circles around them. What do these mean?

[x4000]

I am sure this must sound very stupid but I am playing through the last "big" tutorial (where you can lose) and there is an instruction to "load fleet into transport, carry them somewhere and the unload them". I loaded the fleet after some experimentation (I think it was Ctrl + Right Click). However, there is no explanation HOW TO UNLOAD THE UNITS FROM THE TRANSPORT. I've read the PDF manual included with the game and the word "unload" doesn't appear anywhere in it. I finally found the line saying "Unload" in the "Keyboard shortcuts section" but there was no key defined for this action. So I defined it as U (maybe destroying the previously defined shortcut for the U key).

To load them, all you have to do is right-click the transport with the units selected -- nothing special in terms of modifier keys, etc.  To unlock them, just click the big Unload button on the left of the screen when the transport is selected.  Or, you can use the unload hotkey if you want to bind it, but it's unbound by default as you noted.

Also, when I tried starting new campaign, some planets on the offered map (before actually starting the game) had circles around them. What do these mean?

Those are the planets you can use as your starting location.  If you don't select any, it chooses randomly for you.  Otherwise you can click the planet you want, and you get the bonus ship that is shown at that planet when you start.

[Fuxoft]

I am sure this must sound very stupid but I am playing through the last "big" tutorial (where you can lose) and there is an instruction to "load fleet into transport, carry them somewhere and the unload them". I loaded the fleet after some experimentation (I think it was Ctrl + Right Click). However, there is no explanation HOW TO UNLOAD THE UNITS FROM THE TRANSPORT. I've read the PDF manual included with the game and the word "unload" doesn't appear anywhere in it. I finally found the line saying "Unload" in the "Keyboard shortcuts section" but there was no key defined for this action. So I defined it as U (maybe destroying the previously defined shortcut for the U key).

To load them, all you have to do is right-click the transport with the units selected -- nothing special in terms of modifier keys, etc.  To unlock them, just click the big Unload button on the left of the screen when the transport is selected.  Or, you can use the unload hotkey if you want to bind it, but it's unbound by default as you noted.

Argh! Thanks! I didn't see the Unload button, it was hidden under that info popup thingy...

[x4000]

Ah, gotcha -- no worries!

[Fuxoft]

And  while we are at it, in the "popup info thingy" the text sometimes doesn't fit and the second line of text (the yellow one) sometimes end with only beginning of a word, the rest is not visible (because the window isn't wide enough).

Also, can I switch them off completely with some hotkey?

[x4000]

And  while we are at it, in the "popup info thingy" the text sometimes doesn't fit and the second line of text (the yellow one) sometimes end with only beginning of a word, the rest is not visible (because the window isn't wide enough).

Yep, that one is in mantis, I intend to get to that before 4.4.  Thanks!

Also, can I switch them off completely with some hotkey?

Not at present, no.  There's never been a request for that before to my recollection, as there's simply always a need for them even if you know the game very well (there's far too much to memorize).  For pretty screenshots, etc, you can turn off the entire hud with "cmd:toggle hud" at the chat box, though.

[Fuxoft]

Although I have just barely scratched the surface (I've just finished all the tutorials and started my first campaign), I am simply amazed at your creation and saddened that games like this have no commercial viability in today's game business, I am afraid...

Also, you support is beyond exemplary. Thank you again.

[x4000]

My pleasure!

And, I wouldn't discount the commercial viability of games like this: AI War is in the top 1% of indie games in terms of sales.  It's a niche business, but a good one nonetheless.  By the end of 2011, I'll be extremely surprised if its total gross sales from AI War and its expansions has not exceeded half a million dollars.  So far about $300k.

Sure, that would make the big guys laugh (or cry, if it was their game), but that's why there's a niche for little guys like us.

[Fuxoft]

Wow, that's interesting. $200k per year, that translates to... about 10,000 people buying the full game in a single year, that means about 300 people each and every day? How do they find out about the game? I mean, I am interested in stuff like this (hell, I played the first ever RTS, "Stonkers", when it came out in early 1980s) but I found about A.I. War by pure chance, when desperately browsing on Steam...

While I have your attention: I use Linux as my primary OS, that means I have to play A.I. War on my "music computer" (the only computer out of 5 that I have Windows installed on and I use it exclusively for composing music - well, I was until I got A.I. War). I originally intended to play A.I. War on Linux, under Wine. It runs without problems but there are big problems with performance, sound and animation is choppy etc... Do you even consider releasing the native Linux version or releasing the main engine source code (excluding audiovisulal assets, for example) under GPL and let other people do the conversion? I have a hunch that Linux people are exactly the people who prefer A.I. War over Starcraft 2...

[x4000]

Wow, that's interesting. $200k per year, that translates to... about 10,000 people buying the full game in a single year, that means about 300 people each and every day?

That's about right, but it's not even every day.  On an average day, we sell 20-50 copies, I'd say.  Bear in mind that includes sales of the expansions, so while it's 10,000(ish) sales of the game-and-related-stuff per year, it's not quite that many customers, since quite a few buy one or more expansions.

On the flip side, it's actually a lot more copies than just that which are moved, because a lot of them are sold on discount.  With a Steam sale, we can move thousands upon thousands of copies in a single day, and with most other vendors or our own site, we can move hundreds of copies in a day, a weekend, or a week with it on discount.

How do they find out about the game? I mean, I am interested in stuff like this (hell, I played the first ever RTS, "Stonkers", when it came out in early 1980s) but I found about A.I. War by pure chance, when desperately browsing on Steam...

It all depends on what you read and when, unfortunately.  You can google AI War to see a lot of the various coverage we've had, but places like Rock, Paper Shotgun, Co-Optimus, and Blue's News tend to cover our releases and big events.  Other sites do, as well, and we've had tons of reviews (the game was the 40th-best-reviewed PC game of 2009, including AAA games, according to MetaCritic).  So when people look at reviews on various sites for various genres, or even on metacritic, they find us.  Or looking at our entry on wikipedia, or just googling for strategy games.

Sometimes people just get a hankering for a space RTS, or a space 4X, or a co-op RTS, and they google and find us.  Most of our customers seem to find us via either: 1) seeing a discount promotion; 2) reading about us on some forums that other fans are talking about us on; or 3) just finding us in the listings of games on various distribution channels, like you did.  Word of mouth has been critical for us, though, and ongoing.

While I have your attention: I use Linux as my primary OS, that means I have to play A.I. War on my "music computer" (the only computer out of 5 that I have Windows installed on and I use it exclusively for composing music - well, I was until I got A.I. War). I originally intended to play A.I. War on Linux, under Wine. It runs without problems but there are big problems with performance, sound and animation is choppy etc... Do you even consider releasing the native Linux version or releasing the main engine source code (excluding audiovisulal assets, for example) under GPL and let other people do the conversion? I have a hunch that Linux people are exactly the people who prefer A.I. War over Starcraft 2...

Unfortunately our hands are pretty tied there, as we use the Unity 3D engine and it's a matter of when they add support for linux directly.  We've had other players talking about how the game plays great there under WINE, so it might be a problem with your OpenGL version, driver version, or similar; I'm not sure if anyone plays the game very extensively under linux, though.  If Unity ever gets a native linux version of their engine, we'll definitely start doing builds for linux, as well.  Fingers crossed!