AI War 8.5? Or 9.0?

[Teal_Blue]

I know that 8 is like only a couple of weeks from getting out the gates, as they say in horse racing. But any ideas for where you might want to take 8.5 or 9.0? Just curious.

Any chances of having games go from one map into another? I know its a crazzzzzyyyyy  thought.    And i am losing my head even in the normal games, so why even think about jumping from one map into another with the same ships and crew and ai?

Well, because i thought it might really be cool and ring out even the best players, Of which i am certainly not included, but if i could make it to the end of one map, it might be cool to see if i could keep going, and how long i could keep going.  

Just a thought,
-Teal

[keith.lamothe]

Mainly what I want to do for the next big release is improve the UI

[Teal_Blue]

Ahhh.....  yes, of course. You know i was just thinking that myself... a new UI would like completely change everything! 

(forgive me for being sarcastic, haha, i rarely last half a game, i don't think changing the UI is going to increase my chances. I'm going to have to like study strategy manuals and watch expert play-throughs of AI war and like hang out on the forum and change my name so people won't know it's me asking all these stupid and newbie questions about AI War. 

And the AI progress meter... don't even get me started. I am still trying to think of a way to cheat so i can sneak through a game without the alarms going off and the AI descending! 

Anyway, sure, UI sounds cool!

-Not_Teal

[CodeMichael]

Mainly what I want to do for the next big release is improve the UI

Just the controls? Or more involved than that?

I really enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) Fallen Spire campaign and Champion progress (w/nebulae).  I'd love to see another campaign combining the two in a future release.   Also, hacking should be involved,  I <3 hacking.

As I've been thinking about it I also love the idea of having some kind of heroes in the game.  Captains (or maybe several types of character) who level up and provide bonuses as you play.  Not totally unlike champions, but ultimately heroes who I can cheer for (and mourn?) as I cut into the AI.  Right now I kind of feel like Zap Brannigan, sending wave after wave of my own men until I hit the killbots preset kill limit.

[keith.lamothe]

Mainly what I want to do for the next big release is improve the UI

Just the controls? Or more involved than that?

The actual visual menu layout, making stuff easier to get to, easier to use, easier to get the info you want.  Moving the context menu into the normal menu, etc.

I really enjoyed (and continue to enjoy) Fallen Spire campaign and Champion progress (w/nebulae).  I'd love to see another campaign combining the two in a future release.   Also, hacking should be involved,  I <3 hacking.

FS and the Champ scenarios are the two single most time consuming things I've done with the game, iirc.  Even moreso than when I essentially rewrote the AI.  So I try to find lower-hanging fruit   Though both the Nomad Beacon and the Exodian Blade involve a few stages of progresssion, journals, and hacking.

As I've been thinking about it I also love the idea of having some kind of heroes in the game.  Captains (or maybe several types of character) who level up and provide bonuses as you play.  Not totally unlike champions, but ultimately heroes who I can cheer for (and mourn?) as I cut into the AI.  Right now I kind of feel like Zap Brannigan, sending wave after wave of my own men until I hit the killbots preset kill limit.

When I did Champions I was hoping they would be AIW's take on hero units.  I suppose their expendability cuts into that, though the games I was looking to primarily for inspiration had respawning heroes too.

[CodeMichael]

Both Nomad and the Beacon are fun, and definitely give me a taste of FS.  Thanks for that.  Hopefully the fact that I like FS so much helps you get sense of time well spent.

Yes, champions do give me a sense of "hero units".  I guess what I'm thinking would involve more personality, but champion would be and easy way to kick it off.  A personality or several that I can cheer for as we plunge ahead.  Exploring the possibilities is definitely something that intrigues me.

I'd prefer not another Neinzul expansion where the focus is on new ships and ship types.

Anything that expands on hacking is also exciting.

[Mánagarmr]

Just a clarification; UI improvements are not coming in 8.0 but in the next great release after that?

[keith.lamothe]

Just a clarification; UI improvements are not coming in 8.0 but in the next great release after that?

The plans I was talking about are for post-8.0, correct.

[Kahuna]

expert play-throughs of AI war

Those don't exist.

[Salamander]

I'm rather curious about changing the UI, I know it has been changed since the game's inception but I've never really had an issue with it and no one I've taught how to play has complained. Not that it can't be improved, pretty much anything can be afterall, just never thought it was a serious issue.

Per our discussion on swarmers and especially the autocannons, I'd love to see some balance tweaks more than anything. Get some of the ships that people pass on out of hand to be more desirable.

Of course new bonus ships are the one thing I like to see the most. You can never have enough of those to play with.

I still miss tugs but it seems they are forever lost to us. 

One thing that maybe isn't that big in general, but I would like to see is when you pick a random ship at set-up, it reveals what it is before you start. Maybe also a true random option where you don't know what it is till the game launches?

[keith.lamothe]

I'm rather curious about changing the UI, I know it has been changed since the game's inception but I've never really had an issue with it and no one I've taught how to play has complained. Not that it can't be improved, pretty much anything can be afterall, just never thought it was a serious issue.

I've gotten a lot of feedback from expert-strategy-players that were new to AIW that the UI was the really below par in usability compared to their other favorites in the genre, and also that it was the main barrier in getting their friends into it.

Per our discussion on swarmers and especially the autocannons, I'd love to see some balance tweaks more than anything. Get some of the ships that people pass on out of hand to be more desirable.

Balance tweaks will continue regardless of the main activity, since they're generally very quick to do.

One thing that maybe isn't that big in general, but I would like to see is when you pick a random ship at set-up, it reveals what it is before you start.

You can right click a starting location and then in the menu that comes up you can click random and it will change the ship on that planet (and you can see what it picked).

Maybe also a true random option where you don't know what it is till the game launches?

You can just set up the lobby, not pick a planet, and hit start and it will pick one randomly for you.  Of course that randomizes your position and not just your ship pick.

[motai]

the bioggest improvement i can think of is a base icon in the lower left so that we can always build structures without locating the base in the unit list. make it always be here but grey out with a tooltip on why when you dont have a builder or base there.
 then next to it put a single unified factory icon with a system que that will fill idle factory slots rather than only having factory micro. being able to dedicate factories is fin but it would be nice to have a separate que to make sure they tend to always be doing something. maybe one for each factory type ship, starship, merc ship, spire, shadow, missle
following this thought process a single icon for research  it really isnt a big deal to be able to do unlocks from anywhere and saving the time of finding a lab is good.

last but not least it would be nice is maybe in upper right corner there ware the system map tooltip so we have at a summarized glance what is in the system. the unit list is comprehensive but a challenge to quickly recognize changes in the myriad icons.  this would also let people ctrl click thru wormhole viewing without needing to tab to the summary to get the info. those are my 2 cents for the moment

[Salamander]

One thing that maybe isn't that big in general, but I would like to see is when you pick a random ship at set-up, it reveals what it is before you start.

You can right click a starting location and then in the menu that comes up you can click random and it will change the ship on that planet (and you can see what it picked).

Maybe also a true random option where you don't know what it is till the game launches?

You can just set up the lobby, not pick a planet, and hit start and it will pick one randomly for you.  Of course that randomizes your position and not just your ship pick.

*nods* I knew about the current random ship selection, it reveals what you get before starting and it would be kind of cool to pick your starting spot but get a surprise ship. I am usually more concerned about starting location than my bonus ship, and I'm a fan of such randomness. Sometimes. 

[ArnaudB]

Yes, champions do give me a sense of "hero units".  I guess what I'm thinking would involve more personality, but champion would be and easy way to kick it off.  A personality or several that I can cheer for as we plunge ahead.  Exploring the possibilities is definitely something that intrigues me.

Hum... it's true that champions lack that "heroic" feel. They seem more like expandable modular ships than truly heroic units to me.

In gameplay terms, it's the lack of unique abilities that make the champions look like all other units. They have shadow power-energy, but we only have one or two abilities per ship. More abilities would make them more distinct... but from a development perspective, they're a time-hole.


One thought I have would be for heroes to be more things to capture/hack, where they are a sort of galatic-wide/fleet-wide/system-wide upgrade.
That take it away from the champions though...

Well, I could see "heroes" modules being given to players to put on their champions, with using of the achievement system to make the heroes unlockable through doing some achievement within a game. (Like mini-achievement. reclaiming a a few hundred/thousands AI ships within a game would give a "hero" giving a bonus to reclaiming for the rest of the game.)

Regarding lore, making heroes back-story would be a task best given to the community. There are a few people here that are undoubtedly willing to create some interesting persona, and it would lift the time eaten for that particular task from the developers.


Dunno. I'd really like for champions to be more heroic rather than convenient raiding-scout-kamikaze, but anything like warcraft3 or RPG with heroes having many unique abilities would consume far too much development time for AI war.

A pool of more generic abilities, that could later be recycled for the AI use, might be easier... but not necessarily easy.

[brianc]

I know I've said it at least twenty times before but:
A scoring system that makes (sense ) score chasing fun.

I also want to second the idea that Champions should become more like heroes in traditional RTS games; I expected them to be just that when learning about the abilities and it seemed like that was a goal for a time but it appears like it was given up on halfway through (or at least ended up radically different than expected by myself and others).  How about go full on WC3 with it and allowing us to choose skills as we level and add further diversity to them?