AI War Beta 5.043-5.044 A Dubious Honor

[keith.lamothe]

(Crossposted from this blog post)

This one answers the results of our  sixth "Worst Unit" poll.  Our "winners" were the Zenith Reserves, the Decloaker, the Captive Human Settlement, and the Spire Armor Rotter.  Everyone give them a hand!  Hmm, they don't seem amused.  But at least they'll enjoy the buffs!

We've also dealt with a couple longstanding player annoyances in this version:

Special Forces guard posts are no longer autotargeted so you don't have to worry about your ships (or minor faction friends) shooting them up and causing the +1 AIP per SF post.  Another change was necessary to prevent that from being cheesed (to drain off AI reinforcements), but that's done too.

Now when the AI buys new stuff from the Zenith Trader, the resulting structures will not generate AIP when killed.  So the AI can still replace warp gates and plant black hole machines and such with the trader, but it won't cost you AIP to take those trader-bought ones out.  To compensate, there's a new item in the trader's AI-only shop.  It's fairly nasty, but I'm sure the players will be the better judge of that.

And there's a few other fixes and balance changes in there.

Update: the 5.044 hotfix is out now, with a change that we hope will help with the performance problems people have been seeing in 5.042+.  If it doesn't we'll need to do something more drastic.

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.

[SenorPez]

Fast and furious changes these days! Really looking forward to ignoring work today and instead playing the new version!

[Wingflier]

Thanks a lot for these "Worst Unit" polls and constant updates, we really appreciate the constant attention to the game.

Recently looking at Supreme Commander 2 (hasn't been patched since 2010), it's such a privilege to have indie companies that continue to support their games.

[mattwakeman]

I'm trying to learn this game at the moment and it seems like every time that I turn it on there is a new patch! Awesome stuff though guys and it really shows how committed you are to keep tuning the game.

[blastpop]

I am planning on coming back to playing the game again. I applaud the commitment to the game, the changes make it a bit daunting for me to return with the various changes. But then it will be a challenge...

[keith.lamothe]

I am planning on coming back to playing the game again. I applaud the commitment to the game, the changes make it a bit daunting for me to return with the various changes. But then it will be a challenge...

Most of the changes have been direct responses to (often longstanding) player requests, so in theory the result is a game that is more fun to play

[Mick]

I'm quite pleased with the AIP reduction on the reserves and settlements.

[Hearteater]

For new players, it isn't necessary to patch every time a new patch comes out.  Either ignore them and enjoy the game, or browse the patch notes and see if it addresses any problems you are having in your current game.

[snelg]

Looks like the next game I start will be the second in over a year to have the traders enabled.

[keith.lamothe]

Looks like the next game I start will be the second in over a year to have the traders enabled.

Yea, hopefully they won't feel as much like Zenith Traitors anymore

[Diazo]

Wiki updated.

Note that Microparasites build time has roughly doubled from 30 seconds to 57 seconds. (Not in patch notes.)

D.

[keith.lamothe]

Wiki updated.

Note that Microparasites build time has roughly doubled from 30 seconds to 57 seconds. (Not in patch notes.)

D.

Build time is derived directly from m+c cost for dock-built stuff.

[Faulty Logic]

Special Forces guard posts are no longer autotargeted

My psychiatrist thanks you.

[keith.lamothe]

Special Forces guard posts are no longer autotargeted

My psychiatrist thanks you.

Because you'll need to see them less... or more?

[keith.lamothe]

Update: the 5.044 hotfix is out now, with a change that we hope will help with the performance problems people have been seeing in 5.042+.  If it doesn't we'll need to do something more drastic.