Arcen Games

General Category => AI War Classic => : x4000 February 16, 2011, 03:27:09 PM

: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: x4000 February 16, 2011, 03:27:09 PM
Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2011/02/ai-war-beta-5001-released.html

This one packs a fair number of tweaks.  It lets you bind mouse buttons beyond the first two, which is a handy new feature for players with a lot of mouse buttons.  The core triangle ships have seen some balance tuning after much discussion with players, as have reclamators and guardians.  It's nothing that fundamentally changes the game, but it is a better version of what was there.

Also fixed a bug where hybrid hives were basically broken for the last month and a half or two, apparently.  In terms of grand balance, we changed how the AI scales up its tech levels at the high difficulty levels to avoid expert players feeling it's too grindy, and we also much increased the effect that handicaps have on AI player activities in general (it was affecting far too little since... forever, really).

As we previously promised, we're still in refinement and polish mode for the game, and plan to stay in that mode for the next good number of months.  So even if you're not normally one who plays the latest bleeding edge betas, this is a pretty safe time to play with the betas since they largely just make things more refined without requiring you to completely redefine your strategies every week as was happening back in the 4.0 to 5.0 time period.  Enjoy!

This is a standard update that you can download through the in-game updater itself, if you already have 4.000 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 4.000 or later, you can download that here.
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: Red Spot February 16, 2011, 03:37:36 PM
Nice, I had some influence ..  ::)
Fallen Spire lobby tooltip (reference to wiki removed due to complaints).

Fallen Spire on 9 it is, Leaders fear not, here I come .... I hope ..  :)
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: TechSY730 February 16, 2011, 03:45:40 PM
Thank you!!!

Since this forum does not have a huge smile picture that is not imply cheesiness, I will instead use the regular one several times.
 :) :) :) :) :)

I'm at work right now :(, but I will try this out as soon as I can. I shall also cease my pestering for the time being. ;)
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: chemical_art February 16, 2011, 04:22:00 PM
So many polished changes, I just may unlock MK II frigates now.

The AI inflation of +1 being changed to  9 was nice, because now I feel like I can boot up 8.7 and be destroyed not because of the tech edge but rather due to simply being overwhelmed.


Very nice. Next up: seed spawning?  ;)
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: x4000 February 16, 2011, 04:24:23 PM
It's actually upped from 8.3 to 9.3, not 8 to 9.  So that's even better for those that play at even 9.

Seed spawning?
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: Zeba February 16, 2011, 04:29:30 PM
"Parasites:
Effective range from 3700 => 6000.
Armor piercing from 0 => 750*mk.
Base Health from 7200*mk => 14400*mk.
"

\o/

Trying it out now.

: x4000
Seed spawning?
I think he means how the map is generated from a given seed. But kinda too general to know as it seems fine to me so far.

But then again I wouldn't mind an option to save a seed at the map creation screen so I can quickly load up and modify a seed I like instead of having to load a save game then quit or paste in the seed from notepad.
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: CoyoteTheClever February 16, 2011, 05:21:18 PM
    * Fixed a relatively longstanding bug where AIPerPlanetShipCap and AIPerGuardPostShipCap were generally not being enforced when loading a game (either just-starting or loading later).

I take this to mean the AI is a jerk with Spire Ships not obeying the ship cap bug is fixed? Because it was frustrating having to start over because the AI unlocked Spire Blade Spawners :D
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: TechSY730 February 16, 2011, 06:04:18 PM
    * Fixed a relatively longstanding bug where AIPerPlanetShipCap and AIPerGuardPostShipCap were generally not being enforced when loading a game (either just-starting or loading later).

I take this to mean the AI is a jerk with Spire Ships not obeying the ship cap bug is fixed? Because it was frustrating having to start over because the AI unlocked Spire Blade Spawners :D

Unless there is yet another bug in this logic, yes. ;)
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: chemical_art February 16, 2011, 09:13:17 PM
It's actually upped from 8.3 to 9.3, not 8 to 9.  So that's even better for those that play at even 9.

Seed spawning?

In my excitement, I put seed when I meant shard. More specifically, allowing shards to be generated randomly, without regard to borders.

As shown in Mantis: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=2783

Here is the idea Sunshine! elegantly put in the Fallen Spire thread.

On the subject of shard location generation, could it be randomized to a certain range of jumps away from the player homeworld, but be independent of the AI/human territory boundaries?  So the first, two jumps, the second 2-3 jumps, the next 3-4 jumps, etc (however it progresses).  The seeding process is pretty anti-expansionary at the moment, which is annoying.  The choice then would be to pay for a possibly easier chance of recovery through AIP (increased chance of having it spawn on a friendly planet, but the AIP cost of securing every planet within 4 jumps would be enormous just for the first spire hub shard), or less AIP, but having to drag the shard back through hostile planets (and also having less resources available to defend it).

This would help not discourage early expansion relative to your progress in the Spire story. It doesn't encourage early expansion, it just does not discourage it.

Elsewhere in that thread from page 6 - 7 different ideas were bounced around, including the potential of a teleport option for shard retrieval.
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: x4000 February 16, 2011, 10:01:20 PM
Ah, ok -- gotcha.  That I'll leave to Keith, as Fallen Spire is completely his turf. :)
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: RogueThunder February 17, 2011, 02:22:33 AM
Thank you for making Mouse2 bind-able. A number of logitech mice have a mouse2 just below the scroll-wheel rather than as part of it. Such as two I own(well... maybe one now...lost my better one). (Clicking down the scroll wheel switches between free scroll and clicky scroll xD... hard to describe)
:P Its something to get used to, but quite handy.
And the clear up to 6. Though. 6 isn't as high as common gaming mice go... That said anything with 7+ buttons has software to set the buttons to other things putting ya off the hook XD...

Good work so far. Though I still think Spire Leaches need a more... creative bit of work. They're probably overpowered if used with a fleet(which means pretty much ignoring their teleporting) and still struggle to be remotely worthwhile the way they appear to be designed and would function if they were... well. Remotely cost effective.
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: keith.lamothe February 17, 2011, 08:45:39 AM
And the clear up to 6. Though. 6 isn't as high as common gaming mice go... That said anything with 7+ buttons has software to set the buttons to other things putting ya off the hook XD...
Yea, I'd have gone higher than 6 but the engine's KeyCode enum doesn't have any mouse button higher than Mouse6 :)
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: Echo35 February 17, 2011, 10:29:05 AM
And the clear up to 6. Though. 6 isn't as high as common gaming mice go... That said anything with 7+ buttons has software to set the buttons to other things putting ya off the hook XD...
Yea, I'd have gone higher than 6 but the engine's KeyCode enum doesn't have any mouse button higher than Mouse6 :)

Sad face! Time to set up AutoHotKey for my 16 button mouse! (No, sadly I only own a 6 button one, but supposedly it can macro something like 32 combinations)
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: Malibu Stacey February 18, 2011, 01:56:01 PM
I uninstalled AI War using Steam before the 5.0 release was rolled out so I'd have a "clean" install afterwards as I'd been keeping up with the betas prior to the v5.0 release & wanted to be sure there were no contamination issues. I updated to 5.001 last night using the in game updater & started a new game.

I've just launched AI War today & Steam notified me it had finished updating CoN & tZR (don't own LotS yet so I don't know if it would do the same for that too). Not sure if this will cause any problems as I'm playing without either tZR or CoN enabled in my first v5.0 game but I thought I should let you know in case other Steam users find it has reverted files from the 5.001 release.
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: BobTheJanitor February 18, 2011, 02:39:07 PM
Steam always tells me it has updated CoN and TZR when I start up AI War. I don't think it's having any effect on the game, except slowing down my initial load a little bit.
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: Malibu Stacey February 19, 2011, 11:07:59 AM
Ah I've never seen it happen before so I thought it might be a post-5.0 artifact but if it always happens it's probably fine.

Some observations of my 2 hours in a v5.001 campaign (80 planet simple style map, epic speed, normal ship caps, no expansions active &  normal ship types)

Shield Bearers are still win machines when coupled with a few engineers. I started with them as my bonus ship & have unlocked mark II's. Using full cap of both mark I's & mark II's (24 & 22 respectively) with a full cap of mark II fighters, mark II bombers, full caps of all the free unlock starships & 3 mark I engineers I've yet to lose a ship when assaulting AI worlds. May want to look at reducing the FF radius they project as it's big enough that when one takes enough damage, another ends up covering it while the damaged one gets repaired.

My old lame tactic of using reclamators (Leech SS and/or Parasites if available) to build up a massive blob of free ships including types I couldn't build myself isn't possible any more due to the changes to the AI Eye & reclamators which is a good thing. AI Eyes in 4.0 used to be a walkover using that tactic as you'd reclaim units so fast you'd be able to just head straight to the AI Eye & kill it using the ships it spawned itself. I haven't got Parasites to play with yet but Leech SS seem to do enough damage to AI units that they are reclaimed with full health however I guess this is balanced in that they only fire one shot at a time.

MRS appears to be quite 'niche' now. May need it's knowledge unlock amount lowered from 4K as I see no reason why I would unlock it when I can unlock mark II & mark III engineers for the same amount of knowledge which are vastly more useful in v5.0 in my opinion.

Core Shield Generators are a great addition from what I can see. I haven't played long enough to get to an AI homeworld but I like how they force your hand with taking certain systems. I didn't particularly like the old mechanic of forcing you to kill all the guard posts in a AI core system before you could take out the AI core as it locked you in to a certain way to tackling the AI homeworlds.

My first ARS gave me Space Planes. Not sure if I like them or not yet. Also I've just unlocked mark I Riot SS as one of the AI's has Raptors which I keep having to send my Raid SS after since they like to kite. Hopefully the Riot SS will be able to pick them off or at least slow them down so I can kill them easier.

All in all, loving the changes. No complaints so far =)
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: Giegue February 20, 2011, 02:14:10 AM
holy crap! I leave AI war for a few months and its already a 5.0!
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: raptor331 February 21, 2011, 12:23:33 AM
holy crap! I leave AI war for a few months and its already a 5.0!

 I feel your pain sir
I plan on buying this new light of the spire some time.

I remember when zenith remnant came out *sniff* so long ago...

: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: superking February 21, 2011, 08:01:44 AM
I miss the old leech parasites.. setting up efficent farms was fun
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: Malibu Stacey February 21, 2011, 09:16:15 AM
I miss the old leech parasites.. setting up efficent farms was fun

An efficient farm in 4.021 consisted of
1 - Find system with AI Eye.
2 - park reclamators + MRS near it.
3 - blob the system to trigger the AI Eye.
4 - ?
5 - profit!

The AI Eye would counter-blob you, you'd reclaim the AI blob which would trigger the AI Eye to blob you ad infinitum. It was so lame it made the game a walkover as you could practically generate units anywhere in the galaxy.
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: raptor331 February 21, 2011, 09:43:52 AM
I miss the old leech parasites.. setting up efficent farms was fun



X got rid of that :O
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: TechSY730 February 21, 2011, 03:45:32 PM
I miss the old leech parasites.. setting up efficent farms was fun



X got rid of that :O


You can still farm somewhat with parasites, but not with "non-stop continuous spawning" buildings. Also, thanks to the new parasite mechanics (as of 5.001), farming for high level ships is much, much harder (but still possible).
: Re: AI War Beta 5.001 Released!
: x4000 February 22, 2011, 12:44:51 PM
New one: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,8333.0.html