AI War Beta 3.904 Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2010/10/ai-war-beta-3904-released.html

A few tweaks, specifically to an annoying issue where AI units could "appear" on your planets as reinforcements in cases when they should not be.

This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 3.701 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 3.701 or later, you can download the windows installer for 3.711, or the OSX installer for 3.712. Once you do an in-game update, they'll both be on the latest version, despite starting at slightly different versions.

[Ozymandiaz]

Regarding Force Field bearers, is it possible to get them to "mingle" more in bigger groups? Currently they have a tendency to gather around the edges of my bigger fleets and thus not really protecting the fleet at all

I also noticed that a lot of force fields are obsucring the ships behind them (see picture)

[Ozymandiaz]

Just to comment; its really coming together now, its a joy to play

[Ktoff]

Right now i have not git the time to playtest, but: The soundstutter seems to come in larger intervals (still there whenever clicking a constructor for the first time, sciencelab fo rthe first time etc..)

I have no idea what the source of this stutter is, but presumably this has something to do with the fact that the engine loads something and this blocks the memory for the music player until the loading is finished so the music stops for a split second. I will risk the danger of sounding like captain obvious and ask if it is not possible to assign the music a higher priority so that other things are delayed before the music starts skipping? I find this skipping highly distracting (not so much the first time i click something, but the unprovoked stutter) even if it seems like a minor issue.

Cheers,
KToff

P.S. Your update schedule is apparently back to crazy often :-)

[x4000]

Regarding Force Field bearers, is it possible to get them to "mingle" more in bigger groups? Currently they have a tendency to gather around the edges of my bigger fleets and thus not really protecting the fleet at all

That's kind of challenging to do, unfortunately.  That sort of logic with that many ships (all in motion, and with better priorities such as shooting) makes for a CPU-intensive logic branch if we were to go that way.

I also noticed that a lot of force fields are obsucring the ships behind them (see picture)

Yep, that's unfortunately unavoidable.  With smaller ship caps, that wouldn't be an issue generally -- looks like you're on high.

Just to comment; its really coming together now, its a joy to play

Thank you!  That's wonderful.

Right now i have not git the time to playtest, but: The soundstutter seems to come in larger intervals (still there whenever clicking a constructor for the first time, sciencelab fo rthe first time etc..)

The sound stutter when clicking constructors and similar for the first time is unavoidable.  As you say, it would be nice to be able to give a higher priority to the music (that's what we did in SlimDX), but Unity does not allow for this sort of thing unfortunately.

The unprovoked stutter is based on the garbage collector, and is something we're working on, and doing a variety of things to combat.  Thanks for the reports on that, and hopefully we'll have something cooked up before too long with it.

P.S. Your update schedule is apparently back to crazy often :-)

Indeed.

Thanks!

[Diazo]

Well, that was interesting. Difficulty looks like it's getting back to where you want it, I was fooling around on Diff 8 and got flattened at the 50 minute mark.

Wave of 160 Zenith Electric Bombers is ouch.

However, the game itself is running great even if I am still trying to adjust to all the new stuff.

Still want to see this AI Eye structure, this was only my second game since they've gone in and I haven't gotten two systems out yet.

Although, did you change how the waves are made up? I was playing on Diff 8 and the AI was throwing Mk I waves at me. I know there was a patch note comment about the AIP required for the next mark level changing but I didn't see anything about Diff 8 and up not starting at Mk II anymore.

I'm not sure Mk II at start is needed however, I got flattened quite handily by a Mk I wave.  

D.

[x4000]

I'm not sure on the waves, honestly -- I don't recall that that changed, but that is interesting.  The wave of zenith electric bombers is definitely ouch, but if you see it coming and get up some MLRS turrets you should be able to flatten it instead of the other way around.  That plus a bunch of fighters roaming around should do it!

[Diazo]

Heh.

Fighters are useless actually, Zenith Electrics have the heavy hull type, not polycrystal, which makes their counter bombers.

Or it would if the zenith didn't one-shot the bombers and require 5 shots to be killed in return.....

Basic turrets however might work, they have the bonus against the heavy hull also.

* Dazio wanders off to test this.

Edit: With the armor change, fighters do 82 damage to a zenith electric.

Even spamming basic turrets up to ship cap, I can't stop that wave.  Methinks the ship cap modifier did not get applied somehow.

For the record:

98 Mk I Fighters/Bombers/Frigates, 24 Mk I Bombards, 5 Light Starships, 3 Raid Starships, 98 Basic Turrets, 30 turrets of various others types (MLRS, Missile, Laser) Vs. 161 Zenith Electric Mk I's warping into a system adjacent to my home planet.

The zenith's clear out the adjacent system then come pop my home station with 70 zenith electrics left.

So ya, something's screwy here.

D.

[x4000]

Ah, okay, wow.

[Lancefighter]

bombers kill zelec fairly well, but zelec also kills bombers.

a wave of 160 shouldnt happen though - zelec have a cap in the low teens for the player

[orzelek]

bombers kill zelec fairly well, but zelec also kills bombers.

a wave of 160 shouldnt happen though - zelec have a cap in the low teens for the player

Thats exactly this - that wave was based on some uber cap - I think that I seen zenith bomber cap at 4 on low caps..

[x4000]

New one: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,7383.0.html