AI War Beta 5.023, "Plasma Siege Starships," Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2012/01/ai-war-beta-5023-plasma-siege-starships.html

This one has a bunch of tweaks and fixes that should be really welcome (almost all of them were player requests, after all).  There's actually quite a bit that is significant in here, such as many golems getting tweaks and turrets getting energy costs rebalanced almost across the board.

But of course none of these compare to... the antimatter starship.  I mean siege.  I mean dreadnought.  I mean, now it's actually called "plasma siege."  Wow that's a lot of identity shifting to go through in its life.  This is a ship that has been in the game since very shortly after 1.0, so basically since June 2009, and we've just never been able to get a design for this one that folks have been happy with long-term.

This new design I didn't see until reading about them in the release notes that Keith typed up, but I think this stands a good chance of being the final design at last.  The plasma siege starships have a unique role, a useful role, but not one that is prone to either abuse or long periods of listlessness.

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.

[HellishFiend]

I pop in to check on you guys and see how things are going, and lo and behold, a new pre-release patch released today. Glad to see the development efforts are still going strong.  I hope you guys are doing well financially too - you definitely deserve it!

[x4000]

Thanks, and great to see you again!  We're in much better straights financially than we had been in 2010, that's for sure.  Now it's just a matter of making sure we hit our targets with AVWW so that we can keep at current staffing levels, is the big thing that I'm concerned with.  That's a lot better than being concerned about going completely out of business!

[Wanderer]

We're very much open to more feedback on this; basically diffs 9.3 through 10 aren't really where we expect people to play (indeed, we may need to make them harder if someone actually beats 10 in a fair fight again), but we want it to be fun for those who do.

LOL, noted.

I'll try to keep an eye on where things go wrong for the AI and could use a 'little' beef that will cause the threshold to be JUST out of reach, instead of that opening salvo insanity.  I'll post up a few full game AARs too so you guys can follow along on where things get out of hand vs. what's just that little bit too much difficult (the latter is right where I think it should be if you can smack 9 around with effort and savescum).

[Wanderer]

Thanks, and great to see you again!  We're in much better straights financially than we had been in 2010, that's for sure.  Now it's just a matter of making sure we hit our targets with AVWW so that we can keep at current staffing levels, is the big thing that I'm concerned with.  That's a lot better than being concerned about going completely out of business!

I'd not known that was a concern.  I've very glad to hear it no longer is!

[x4000]

Yeah, there was a big splash about that in the gaming news right around the time my son was born.  Tidalis had flopped financially, we shrank some, and we had a couple of months' worth of money left before we would be bankrupt.

Of course, turns out that the very next month things turned around incredibly for us, and we wound up having a banner year despite Tidalis flopping.  That Christmas season is no joke, but summers can be brutal in the opposite direction.

[keith.lamothe]

I pop in to check on you guys and see how things are going, and lo and behold, a new pre-release patch released today. Glad to see the development efforts are still going strong.  I hope you guys are doing well financially too - you definitely deserve it!

The other day I thought about the old community poll and wondered if you'd pop in some time again

Yea, things are going very well in general.  Just need to make AVWW a success; AIW expansions are good for delivering fun and making money, but can't do those back-to-back or players (and us) get really tired, even if (especially if) it's genuinely new and improved stuff.  So having at least two games to do new stuff for will help give people a chance to play while not in a "patch storm"

Anyway, good to see you

[HellishFiend]

Great to see you again too, and I am so glad to hear you guys had a positive turnaround! I am starting to get into business for myself, and your story is inspirational for many reasons.  I've been itching to play a few games of AI war lately, and I should be checking back here more often. Additionally, same as with Tidalis, you can count on me for a loyal customer purchase of A Valley Without Wind. 

Keith - Ditto, great to see you again too! I had tons of fun interacting with you and Chris during the age of the community polls. It was definitely time well spent. From briefly looking at the forum and new patch notes, it seems that the spirit of community involvement that provided the environment for those polls still exists today, and it is a credit to the company and it's products. 

[Cyborg]

So is the dreadnought now supposed to be for going against Shield bearers, that kind of thing? I'm trying to think of a situation where the AI hides behind a force field. It's pretty rare from my experience, and the times that it does happen seem unintentional. Maybe with hybrids.

I could use some clarification on what we are supposed to be doing with this. 200 ships at 1% damage but only behind a force field? 

[TechSY730]

So is the dreadnought now supposed to be for going against Shield bearers, that kind of thing? I'm trying to think of a situation where the AI hides behind a force field. It's pretty rare from my experience, and the times that it does happen seem unintentional. Maybe with hybrids.

I could use some clarification on what we are supposed to be doing with this. 200 ships at 1% damage but only behind a force field? 

Four words, Spire shield guard posts.

[Wanderer]

Keith, as much as I've been banging on this drum, it's only fair I say we may have went too far...      However, not having an enforced 15 minute build is nice.

To wit, first wave:

Code: [Select]

1/30/2012 5:30:30 PM (5.023)
-----------------------------------
Performing first CheckWave with size factor of 1 on wave at Game Time: 0:06:40

CheckWave: populating count of BomberII with base magnitude of 34
numberUnits = kv.Value * this.WaveSize : 34
after applying the ship-type-specific cap multiplier (which includes the unit-cap-scale multiplier), numberUnits : 17
after applying UsefulnessInAIWaveMultiplier if any, numberUnits : 13.6
after applying Mark-based multiplier if any, numberUnits : 12.24
after applying at-least-one rule, numberUnits : 12.24
after applying difficulty-based multiplier (if <= 3 then 1, <= 4 : 1.5, <= 5 : 1.75, <= 6 : 2, <= 7 : 2.25, <= 9 : 2.5, <= 9.3 : 2.75, <= 9.6 : 3, <= 9.8 : 3.8, 10 : 4.5), numberUnits : 55.06
numberUnitsInt = numberUnits.IntValue : 55
after at-least-effective-ship-cap-rule, numberUnitsInt : 88

CheckWave: populating count of BomberStarship with base magnitude of 1
numberUnits = kv.Value * this.WaveSize : 1
after applying the ship-type-specific cap multiplier (which includes the unit-cap-scale multiplier), numberUnits : 1
after applying UsefulnessInAIWaveMultiplier if any, numberUnits : 1
after applying Mark-based multiplier if any, numberUnits : 1.5
after applying at-least-one rule, numberUnits : 1.5
after applying difficulty-based multiplier (if <= 3 then 1, <= 4 : 1.5, <= 5 : 1.75, <= 6 : 2, <= 7 : 2.25, <= 9 : 2.5, <= 9.3 : 2.75, <= 9.6 : 3, <= 9.8 : 3.8, 10 : 4.5), numberUnits : 6.75
numberUnitsInt = numberUnits.IntValue : 6
it's a starship so only adding one rule : 1 (had you going there, didn't we)

CheckWave: populating count of AIRaidStarship with base magnitude of 1
numberUnits = kv.Value * this.WaveSize : 1
after applying the ship-type-specific cap multiplier (which includes the unit-cap-scale multiplier), numberUnits : 1
after applying UsefulnessInAIWaveMultiplier if any, numberUnits : 1
after applying Mark-based multiplier if any, numberUnits : 1.5
after applying at-least-one rule, numberUnits : 1.5
after applying difficulty-based multiplier (if <= 3 then 1, <= 4 : 1.5, <= 5 : 1.75, <= 6 : 2, <= 7 : 2.25, <= 9 : 2.5, <= 9.3 : 2.75, <= 9.6 : 3, <= 9.8 : 3.8, 10 : 4.5), numberUnits : 6.75
numberUnitsInt = numberUnits.IntValue : 6
it's a starship so only adding one rule : 1 (had you going there, didn't we)

CheckWave: populating count of Flagship with base magnitude of 1
numberUnits = kv.Value * this.WaveSize : 1
after applying the ship-type-specific cap multiplier (which includes the unit-cap-scale multiplier), numberUnits : 1
after applying UsefulnessInAIWaveMultiplier if any, numberUnits : 1
after applying Mark-based multiplier if any, numberUnits : 0.9
after applying at-least-one rule, numberUnits : 1
after applying difficulty-based multiplier (if <= 3 then 1, <= 4 : 1.5, <= 5 : 1.75, <= 6 : 2, <= 7 : 2.25, <= 9 : 2.5, <= 9.3 : 2.75, <= 9.6 : 3, <= 9.8 : 3.8, 10 : 4.5), numberUnits : 4.5
numberUnitsInt = numberUnits.IntValue : 4
it's a starship so only adding one rule : 1 (had you going there, didn't we)

Wave total ships: 91
TypesForDirectAdd count by type:
BomberII => 88
BomberStarship => 1
AIRaidStarship => 1
Flagship => 1
TypesForCarrierAdd count by type:

I'll play a few out at this and see where it goes, especially when they combine forces.  It's possibly just a knee-jerk reaction to having to hammer down opening moves to deal with the overwhelming "welcome to the neighborhood" it used to do, and the mid-game will be nice and ugly.   

[Wanderer]

So is the dreadnought now supposed to be for going against Shield bearers, that kind of thing? I'm trying to think of a situation where the AI hides behind a force field. It's pretty rare from my experience, and the times that it does happen seem unintentional. Maybe with hybrids.

I could use some clarification on what we are supposed to be doing with this. 200 ships at 1% damage but only behind a force field? 

Four words, Spire shield guard posts.

I can name that song in two.  "Shield Ninny"   

[Cyborg]

So we have a new starship for shield AI and a spire guard post? I'm spending my knowledge on that?

[keith.lamothe]

So is the dreadnought now supposed to be for going against Shield bearers, that kind of thing? I'm trying to think of a situation where the AI hides behind a force field. It's pretty rare from my experience, and the times that it does happen seem unintentional. Maybe with hybrids.

I could use some clarification on what we are supposed to be doing with this. 200 ships at 1% damage but only behind a force field? 

So we have a new starship for shield AI and a spire guard post? I'm spending my knowledge on that?

It also can hit everything the bomber starship can, instead of being severely limited by the antimatter-ammo rule.  It's not as good dps in a non-ff situation as the bomber starship, but partly that's because the bomber starship has to get right up close.  Also, the splash damage effect can hit the small stuff, which the bomber starship can never do.

Let me put it this way: do you like Bomber Starships?  This is a lot like a Bomber Starship except less raw dps and more utility.  If it's not a good balance right now, we can change that.

[Wanderer]

So we have a new starship for shield AI and a spire guard post? I'm spending my knowledge on that?

19k range, 400k dmg (mk1), and 8 second reloads.  That's 50k dps by itself, plus FF bleedthrough.  For 88k in resources.  Not a bad starship ratio (about 0.66 dps/material).  Also reasonable immunities.

I'm gonna take 'em for a testdrive, but this should have value.  They're no more specialized then Raids in my opinion.  I'd personally like to see dampening on them since they're slower then dirt (36 speed), but one thing at a time.

EDIT: I should have added, if you like to hide things under FFs (like lightning turrets at entry points), things are gonna get flattened fast if they get included in attack waves.  Be prepared if you're ff heavy like I am...