AI War Beta 5.016, "Hardened Forcefields," Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2011/09/ai-war-beta-5016-hardened-forcefields.html

This one has some really substantial changes to forcefield balance.  First of all, the player forcefields are buffed and increased in ship cap.  Then players also get a new line of mark I-III hardened forcefields, which are high-armor but lower-heath alternatives to regular forcefields.

Next, the way that enemy ships collide at the edge of forcefields has been radically changed.  This is a complex one to explain, so I'll just point you to the full release notes link above, which does the best job of explaining it.  Feedback welcome on this in particular!

Oh, also ion cannons/blasters have been buffed about 4x, and preservation wardens now scale properly in multiplayer.

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.

[zebramatt]

Remind me: did riot starships' force fields previously allow you to push enemy ships out of the way? Presumably if they did (which I'm not sure about) then now they no longer do? Is that (nonsense?/) intended?

[x4000]

Yes, they were strong, and yes they were able to push ships, and yes they now don't.  But they can still let you blockade a wormhole with them, and now do a better job of it.

[chemical_art]

The most interesting thing I can think of is that hardened shields can mostly blow off bombers.

And it is awesome to finally have a strong defensive unit not weak to them.

[keith.lamothe]

The most interesting thing I can think of is that hardened shields can mostly blow off bombers.

And it is awesome to finally have a strong defensive unit not weak to them.

It is true and quite intentional that they are better against bombers than standard generators, but they really can't blow them off; they only take 20% damage from bombers, but they only have 25% the health of a normal generator of the same mark, which works out to being only 80% as vulnerable to bombers as normal generators.  That's certainly an improvement, but hardly changes the fact that bombers are still the main natural enemy.  The main point of the new line is to give you the ability to "buy" more forcefields if you really want to spend the knowledge on that (which may not be strategically sound, but sometimes our role is to let you make non-optimal decisions), and also to throw a few twists into the normal ff recipe just for fun.

What I'm curious to see is how often the hardened fields get owned by something that can punch through a million armor, because they'd be 400% as vulnerable (compared to standard generators) to damage that gets through that

[TechSY730]

Do the AIs get a version of the hardened forcefields, or is it a human exclusive item?

[x4000]

Human only.

[TechSY730]

Human only.

Cool. With all the AI exlusive defensive options (or offshoots that are superior to their human equivalents, like guardians vs. turrets), its nice to get a human exlusive defensive option that the AI cannot claim to have a version or superior offshoot of.

One last thing. Although the Ion cannon change certainly is usefull, it still does not solve the "lower mark Ions are useless to higher mark ships", which means Mk. I ion cannons are still the joke they were before once you get past the early game.

[x4000]

Yeah -- there are a fair number of things that the humans get that the AI really doesn't (except in minor factions or whatever), but it's always nice to have more.

In terms of the ion cannon changes, we know -- Keith already had a model that solves that which he expressed to me, but I think he wanted to do this gradually to not flip people out.

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, I didn't have time to do the more involved ion changes correctly, and the change I did do should reverse the last year or so's decay of ion usefulness.  MkI ion cannons now are no more a joke than they were in 2.0; that is to say that they're a joke in human hands, and still annoying in AI hands since humans usually keep using mkI stuff.

[zebramatt]

Yes, they were strong, and yes they were able to push ships, and yes they now don't.  But they can still let you blockade a wormhole with them, and now do a better job of it.

Ah so it wasn't just nonsense I was spouting. Always good to know.

So in addition to fixing a bug and an exploit, and improving CPU performance, you're also cutting down on police brutality? Bravo! 

[x4000]

Hahahaha. 

[TechSY730]

MkI ion cannons now are no more a joke than they were in 2.0; that is to say that they're a joke in human hands, and still annoying in AI hands since humans usually keep using mkI stuff.

I think this demonstrates an imbalance in Ion cannon usefulness in AI vs. Human hands, due to a major difference between AI and human behavior. Human players tend to use multiple marks, even Mk. Is, all throughout the game. AIs typically only use one Mk. of ships for offense. So other than making the AI use multiple marks in waves (like when it says the AI is at Mk. III, it will use a mix of Mk. I, II, and III ships), I don't think this imbalance can really be solved.

Incidentally, I would not mind making the AI use mixed Mks as well, but because this would require some massive overhauling of the wave composition logic, I can understand why this probably won't be done.

[x4000]

I think this demonstrates an imbalance in Ion cannon usefulness in AI vs. Human hands

That's what he just was telling you.  And he has a solution, as I already said and he said, but it's not in yet.  I'm not sure what your point is.  His point is that at least ions are useful for the AI again, versus being useful for no one.

[TechSY730]

I think this demonstrates an imbalance in Ion cannon usefulness in AI vs. Human hands

That's what he just was telling you.  And he has a solution, as I already said and he said, but it's not in yet.  I'm not sure what your point is.  His point is that at least ions are useful for the AI again, versus being useful for no one.

Oh, OK. Good to know that this is at least known and your are working out ways to make them more useful to humans. That's all I really wanted to know.