AI War Beta 5.032, "Then The Pendulum Swung Back," Released!

[x4000]

Original: http://arcengames.blogspot.com/2012/03/ai-war-beta-5032-then-pendulum-swung.html

This one has more balance and bugfix changes, and more responses to the "worst unit" polls.  This time, the Mobile Repair Station gets some overdue love.  Most substantially with this release, however, are some bug/balance fixes relating to the AI and how it gets reinforcements.

Those were being held artificially low on certain difficulties, in certain circumstances, and when the AI had certain ships.  So we fixed the glitch, and this will just work itself out naturally.  Haha.  In some recent versions, players were wondering why we were being so nice to the player team in terms of balance changes; well, now the other thing on your foot drops, I guess!

It's not all that bad, really, but it's nice to sound ominous sometimes.

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.

[zoutzakje]

awesome, thanks for the update =)
but hmm... i guess the dyson sphere alert issue I talked about with keith didn't make it through yet :/ perhaps it was intentional behaviour after all.

[keith.lamothe]

awesome, thanks for the update =)
but hmm... i guess the dyson sphere alert issue I talked about with keith didn't make it through yet :/ perhaps it was intentional behaviour after all.

No, I do intend to change that but I generally only get one sustained chunk of time to work on each AIW release and I think your mention of it came after that.  Either that or I simply didn't get that far down my ever-growing todo list

[TechSY730]

awesome, thanks for the update =)
but hmm... i guess the dyson sphere alert issue I talked about with keith didn't make it through yet :/ perhaps it was intentional behaviour after all.

No, I do intend to change that but I generally only get one sustained chunk of time to work on each AIW release and I think your mention of it came after that.  Either that or I simply didn't get that far down my ever-growing todo list

No problem. With the need to get a ready or near ready to release version of AVWW out in a little more than a week (you're demoing the complete or near complete version at some convention, right?), I can see why you wouldn't have much time for AI War. Especially with the last day and a half or so dealing with major bugs (memory leaks, crashes, and other [sarcasm]oh so fun[/sarcasm] stuff to deal with)

[tigersfan]

awesome, thanks for the update =)
but hmm... i guess the dyson sphere alert issue I talked about with keith didn't make it through yet :/ perhaps it was intentional behaviour after all.

No, I do intend to change that but I generally only get one sustained chunk of time to work on each AIW release and I think your mention of it came after that.  Either that or I simply didn't get that far down my ever-growing todo list

... (you're demoing the complete or near complete version at some convention, right?)...

Yeah, Chris, Erik and Pablo are going to PAX East. http://east.paxsite.com/

[Diazo]

Wiki updated for 5.032.

Looks like only the Youngling Nanoswarm had any changes to it's numbers.

Although those missile targetting changes look interesting. In my current game I've got gravity drain as my bonus ship, pair those up with frigates and many ships never even get in range, I'm thinking my frigate ball's dps just increased.

Time to experiment.

D.

[dotjd]

I've had a chance to try the new warp jammer stations.  They, uh, didn't stop a raid engine inconveniently placed 2 hops away from my homeworld from derailing my attempt to colonize the system in between.  >_>

public safety announcement, etc.

[Diazo]

Hmmm.

Reading the Raid Engine description, it does not say that it's a planet on alert that activates the raid engine, it's if an adjacent planet is not controlled by an AI or if human military units are in an adjacent system.

Now, before these warp jammer changes those were the same thing as the planet being on alert but now I think some clarification is needed and probably a check of all similar mechanics to make sure the descriptions are correct for things activating off a system being on alert, or if it directly checks for human presence regardless of alert status.

D.

[Wanderer]

I've had a chance to try the new warp jammer stations.  They, uh, didn't stop a raid engine inconveniently placed 2 hops away from my homeworld from derailing my attempt to colonize the system in between.  >_>

public safety announcement, etc.

Out of curiousity, what made you think it would stop a raid engine in its description?

[keith.lamothe]

Out of curiousity, what made you think it would stop a raid engine in its description?

Optimism kills way more players than the AI does.

[dotjd]

I know the raid engine description doesn't outright say that it uses the alert mechanic, but the mechanics are so similar if not otherwise identical that I assumed they were one and the same.

[TechSY730]

Well, with my current game, the AI got blade spawners.

While I can safely* say that they are getting more blade spawners per guard post, the rate at which they are getting them doesn't seem to be unreasonable, yet at least.
Unlike before where their numbers had a sane cap but their rate had the potential to grow out of control.

*or rather unsafely, because its blade spawners in AI hands! 

[keith.lamothe]

Well, with my current game, the AI got blade spawners.

While I can safely* say that they are getting more blade spawners per guard post, the rate at which they are getting them doesn't seem to be unreasonable, yet at least.
Unlike before where their numbers had a sane cap but their rate had the potential to grow out of control.

*or rather unsafely, because its blade spawners in AI hands! 

Good to hear it's going about the process of shredding all trace of humanity in a reasonable, equitable fashion

[Wanderer]

Well, with my current game, the AI got blade spawners.

While I can safely* say that they are getting more blade spawners per guard post, the rate at which they are getting them doesn't seem to be unreasonable, yet at least.
Unlike before where their numbers had a sane cap but their rate had the potential to grow out of control.

*or rather unsafely, because its blade spawners in AI hands! 

Good to hear it's going about the process of shredding all trace of humanity in a reasonable, equitable fashion

"YESSIRREEE ladies and gentlement, right here right now you have you very own chance to see a demonstration of the AI Cuisinart being used properly!  Step right up, step right up, don't be shy now.  When else will you have a chance to see the human civilazation mincemeatmaker working at its finest levels of control under the hands of an unruly AI?  What?!  NO!  Of course it's perfectly safe, just step right up!  And REMEMBER!  Distrubition of this fine model of mechanical mayhem is now being properly distributed across ALL of your cities!  That's right!  No more horribly uneven distrubution!  Our suppliers have gotten their acts together and you, EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU, can own one right here right now.  Yessiree!  Step right on up!"

[PokerChen]

Well, with my current game, the AI got blade spawners.

While I can safely* say that they are getting more blade spawners per guard post, the rate at which they are getting them doesn't seem to be unreasonable, yet at least.
Unlike before where their numbers had a sane cap but their rate had the potential to grow out of control.

*or rather unsafely, because its blade spawners in AI hands! 

Good to hear it's going about the process of shredding all trace of humanity in a reasonable, equitable fashion

"YESSIRREEE ladies and gentlement, right here right now you have you very own chance to see a demonstration of the AI Cuisinart being used properly!  Step right up, step right up, don't be shy now.  When else will you have a chance to see the human civilazation mincemeatmaker working at its finest levels of control under the hands of an unruly AI?  What?!  NO!  Of course it's perfectly safe, just step right up!  And REMEMBER!  Distrubition of this fine model of mechanical mayhem is now being properly distributed across ALL of your cities!  That's right!  No more horribly uneven distrubution!  Our suppliers have gotten their acts together and you, EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU, can own one right here right now.  Yessiree!  Step right on up!"

So says the publicist standing outside the appliance store, which just so happens to be next to a butchers store.