AI War: Ancient Shadows Marauder Starbase Teaser

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Original: http://christophermpark.blogspot.com/2012/08/ai-war-ancient-shadows-marauder.html

We had hoped to be at a point where we could reveal a lot more information about Ancient Shadows this week, but as it turns out most of that is going to need to wait until next week.

Still, we don't want to leave you empty-handed -- so here's a screenshot of what Keith is working on code-wise, and what I've just completed visually.

Keith's notes on the screenshot:

- Is that a nebula in the background?
- Why is that wormhole blue?
- What are the Marauders doing with a starbase?
- Wait, starbase?
- Backwater areas?
- What is a H-S-FF?
- And what is in that planetary summary sidebar? (the ship images in the sidebar are placeholder, fyi).

 We should have something a lot more meaty for you next week -- knock on wood!

[Draco18s]

- What is a H-S-FF?

Probably a Force Field of some sort.  Although given the icon of the selected unit...GOOD QUESTION.

[Hearteater]

On a scale of 1 to 10, my happiness is an 11 from that screen shot.  Something as silly as that has really brightened up a really terrible morning.

[Minotaar]

I guess absolutely no new modular combat starships are to be expected. Especially not with 120k weapon damage. That's a real shame. 

[Wingflier]

Yay more minor faction mischief! I can't wait to hear more!

[chemical_art]

Bottom left corner:

Modules for a ship. Probably new starship. Looks like laser and turret lines of modules
This ship has an acryonom H - S - FF

FF could be forcefield, but the ship itself seems selected, allowing the weapon modules to be seen. So I doubt it.

In natical terms (which ai war used for the fallen spire) it could be a frigate.

New likely minor faction building: Marauder star base.
New likely minor faction enemy building.

Blue wormhole and hints of "backwater" areas of the galaxy

potential new areas of the galaxy. Speculation here runs wild. Are these areas that are not the standard owned by ai type planets?  Will it be the same "plane", and border human and ai worlds? Is it a new "plane", in the process not breaking the current logic with having blue wormholes and the standard green and red ones.

[Draco18s]

This ship has an acryonom H - S - FF

I'll note that the selected unit is not necessarily the unit on screen.

[chemical_art]

This ship has an acryonom H - S - FF

I'll note that the selected unit is not necessarily the unit on screen.

I look at the unit selection, which shows H - S - FF. On the right there is a starship icon as a placeholder. The tooltip is a seperate unit, for you can select one unit and see the tooltip of a different unit (just tried this).

It may not a be a starship, but it is a mobile unit with modules at the very least.

I am leaning heavily that said models and acronym is not the starbase.

[Martyn van Buren]

Clearly so, right?  You can't select and get a building foldout for something that shows "damage to do" when you mouseover it.  Plus, the sidebar shows the icons for Human Rebel Colonies for both human and enemy and they are not the selected thing.  But presumably that means we are getting human starbases.  Am I right to think that yellow is the color that human rebel ships get in the sidebar when you build them, or is that only when they show up from the resistance fighters plot?

[Kahuna]

Cool asteroids! Also I like it how the Marauder Starbase looks.
Brb gonna go put myself in a coma and wake up next week.

[chemical_art]

Most exciting part is certainly that blue worm hole and backwater.

Everything else is kinda incremental, but that is all new. All my speculation runs wild with a new plane, galaxy, etc.

Will the ai be on that plane? How will the planes interact? Does the plane connect to the player Hw or does it have its own special gates protected by the ai?

[Martyn van Buren]

I'm wondering if backwater space will make it possible to attack worlds out of deep space, like a counterattack post wave or Marauder attack.

[Draco18s]

This ship has an acryonom H - S - FF

I'll note that the selected unit is not necessarily the unit on screen.

I look at the unit selection, which shows H - S - FF. On the right there is a starship icon as a placeholder. The tooltip is a seperate unit, for you can select one unit and see the tooltip of a different unit (just tried this).

Precisely.
Just because we've selected an "H-S-FF" it doesn't mean we're looking at one.

[Hearteater]

H-S-FF = Human-Station-Force Field maybe?

[KDR_11k]

Human-Spire-Frigate?

That station looks a bit messy up close, fine if a bit uninteresting zoomed out (e.g. on the thumbnail) but the full detail one looks off, too many different light directions and whatnot...