AI War Beta 5.021, "Hybrid Helper Pie," Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2012/01/ai-war-beta-5021-hybrid-helper-pie.html

This one is filled with some really cool stuff that I had no hand in.  Keith has been really adding in some neat new features with this one, as well as a lot of housekeeping stuff.

First off, there's a lot of balance stuff in here.  AI superforts won't be so annoying to deal with anymore, and a lot of the neinzul ships in particular also got some balance shifts.  Then there were a bunch of smaller changes to things like showing the munitions boost amounts in tooltips, things of that nature.

Now to the new features: there's basically now an observer mode to the game, but it actually goes even deeper than that.  When players have the setting "allow team control of ships" enabled, then the observer can actually act as a "helper" instead, and share control of that player's ships, resource bars, and so on.

That "switch to UI of other player" function actually works in regular gameplay between full players with the "allow team control of ships" setting on, come to that.  So it's a really pair of features in that it allows a) multiple full players to switch between each others' interfaces; b) one or more observer players to watch the game; c) one or more observers to act as "helpers" to one or more fully players.

There's actually a pretty substantial list of other tweaks and balance changes in this release, too, but that's definitely my favorite new feature in a while.  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.

[Coppermantis]

Hybrid changes are most welcome, I was a bit tired of them being nowhere near as fierce as they were made out to be. The new behaviors should help. Nice to see an update for AI War, haven't had one in a while.

[Cyborg]

Enjoying it already. Thanks.

[Buttons840]

So what's the details of Hybrids and the Dyson sphere?

[Wanderer]

So what's the details of Hybrids and the Dyson sphere?

I believe that's a "play and enjoy the surprise" for a while. :-)

[keith.lamothe]

So what's the details of Hybrids and the Dyson sphere?

I believe that's a "play and enjoy the surprise" for a while. :-)

Indeed   I'll be happy to put the details on the wiki after a while, but I wanted to see y'all stumble into it first   A few hints:

1) If you have hybrids on but no dyson sphere, the first part of the new behavior will show up.  Nothing terribly special, but it might cause some surprises.
2) If you have non-advanced hybrids on and the dyson sphere, the first and second parts become possible.  Getting into scary territory, depending.
3) If have advanced hybrids on and the dyson sphere... well, you'll see.

At a fairly early stage you'll start getting alerts (in the wave-alert box) even if you don't have scout intel; if it's not telling you where the stuff is happening you'll want to get scouts out there asap.

And, as with basically anything the hybrids can do, if you just totally wipe the map with them from the early game they'll have a hard time building up to much, and you may or may not see the new stuff.  But if your hands are already full they can greatly increase "fun".

[zoutzakje]

oh great, playing with regular hybrids and the dyson on in my current game.... but I'm curious to see all the new tricks so i think I'll patch anyways

[keith.lamothe]

oh great, playing with regular hybrids and the dyson on in my current game.... but I'm curious to see all the new tricks so i think I'll patch anyways

Their new form of buildup won't start until you patch, so you'll probably have a while before it starts to manifest and you might win the game in that time

[Shardz]

Keith travels up the middle with the secret cloaked slam dunk...and he scores!   

Thanks for the surprise update, always appreciated. And if you want to toss in some *optional* NetHack-ish random elements, events, and/or secret screwy stuff, then count me in for that, as well.   

[Wanderer]

1) If you have hybrids on but no dyson sphere, the first part of the new behavior will show up.  Nothing terribly special, but it might cause some surprises.
2) If you have non-advanced hybrids on and the dyson sphere, the first and second parts become possible.  Getting into scary territory, depending.
3) If have advanced hybrids on and the dyson sphere... well, you'll see.

At a fairly early stage you'll start getting alerts (in the wave-alert box) even if you don't have scout intel; if it's not telling you where the stuff is happening you'll want to get scouts out there asap.

To confirm, advanced hybrids will get hybrid 1 and 2 parts as well as some additional fun, right?  Just want to make sure I enjoy all the tasty pain... um... goodness...

[keith.lamothe]

1) If you have hybrids on but no dyson sphere, the first part of the new behavior will show up.  Nothing terribly special, but it might cause some surprises.
2) If you have non-advanced hybrids on and the dyson sphere, the first and second parts become possible.  Getting into scary territory, depending.
3) If have advanced hybrids on and the dyson sphere... well, you'll see.

At a fairly early stage you'll start getting alerts (in the wave-alert box) even if you don't have scout intel; if it's not telling you where the stuff is happening you'll want to get scouts out there asap.

To confirm, advanced hybrids will get hybrid 1 and 2 parts as well as some additional fun, right?  Just want to make sure I enjoy all the tasty pain... um... goodness...

Correct, the advanced hybrids are a package deal

[festa_freak]

Thank you very much!!! 

[zoutzakje]

oh great, playing with regular hybrids and the dyson on in my current game.... but I'm curious to see all the new tricks so i think I'll patch anyways

Their new form of buildup won't start until you patch, so you'll probably have a while before it starts to manifest and you might win the game in that time

hmm well... in my current game the dyson sphere is bordering a core world. dysons aren't able to to kill mk V ships so the enemy just keeps piling it up (1400+ ships on low caps). so far I've played 2 hours since patching and I'm wondering if the new hybrid/dyson sphere thing will affect my odds of taking that coreworld whenever I'm rdy for it. I haven't been able yet to scout far enough to see if there is another way to the homeworld (advancing to an advanced factory is my highest priority right now), but I'm preparing for the worst. So I was just wondering if I should only count in the 1400+ ships (2000+ probably by the time I'm ready to attack) or if there will be even more trouble blocking my way.
You don't have to spoil the surprise for me if you don't want to Just a small hint would be nice

[keith.lamothe]

You don't have to spoil the surprise for me if you don't want to Just a small hint would be nice

If you see the plot developing you'll want to either stop it or be able to win fairly shortly.  And "win fairly shortly" would become trickier pretty fast in your case, so you'll want to stop it

[x4000]

New one: http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,9720.0.html