Author Topic: AI War Beta 5.080-5.082 "Bonus Round" Released!  (Read 14104 times)

Offline keith.lamothe

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AI War Beta 5.080-5.082 "Bonus Round" Released!
« on: September 15, 2012, 01:47:12 pm »
(Crossposted from this blog post)

This one adds the last three bonus ship types of the Ancient Shadows expansion:

The Youngling Firefly is sort of a mix between the youngling idea, the zenith viral shredder, and a bugzapper.  Basically it's an ok fighter that does an AOE explosion when it dies, but that aoe explosion gets stronger based on how much damage it did during its lifetime.

The Saboteur is sort of like flipping the firefly idea around: instead of blowing up when it dies, it makes the stuff it shoots cause an AOE explosion when those victims die.  General theme thus far: make stuff blow up.

The Spire Corvette is the first "bonus starship" in the game, and is built from the starship constructor mainly because it is modular and needs its own buy-menu-tab, which the starship mechanic is better setup to support than the space-dock-ship mechanic.  Anyway, these are straight-up combat starships, but with half the cap of the Spire Starship so they can be more individually awesome (beware though, your accountant will probably have a heart attack on the higher-mark ones).  A selection of modules is available from the start, but the higher-mark versions piggyback on existing research much like the fallen-spire modules, neinzul enclave drones, and modular fortress modules.

This release also has several bugfixes and balance changes, some of them pretty important.

Update: 5.081 hotfix is out to fix some important bug and balance issues in 5.080, and make a number of other changes/fixes that should hopefully improve things overall.

Update: 5.082 hotfix is out to fix a nasty one in 5.081 that could cause basically all buy menus to be empty.  Whoops.

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.
« Last Edit: September 17, 2012, 02:40:44 pm by keith.lamothe »
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Offline Diazo

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #1 on: September 15, 2012, 01:48:37 pm »
Ohhh.

But my existing game calls.....

Err..

Why do you tempt me?

D.

 8)

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #2 on: September 15, 2012, 01:53:55 pm »
Ohhh.

But my existing game calls.....

Err..

Why do you tempt me?

D.

 8)
It's just a wafer-thin update; surely there's room in your existing game for it ;)

Depending on what ships you and the AI are using heavily, it may not make much difference.
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Offline TechSY730

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #3 on: September 15, 2012, 01:56:47 pm »
General theme thus far: make stuff blow up.

You've just given me an idea for an AAR.

AI War: Michael Bay edition

Basically, a map with these two new "blow up" bonus ship types, Z autobombs, and if I can find a good map with them, grenade launchers, nanoswarms, and/or electric shuttles.

 :D

Offline Cyborg

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #4 on: September 15, 2012, 01:59:59 pm »
Anyone noticing that the game is pausing if you tab out on full-screen?
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Offline Lancefighter

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #5 on: September 15, 2012, 02:04:09 pm »
cyborg, thats a feature?


And I am not really sure how to feel about this update. First, I CALLED DEM BONUS SHIPS YO :D

And second, Are you saying there are 4x as many ai ships chasing the shards now? they were already pretty difficult to defend.. At least 48 speed is reasonable.

And then you nerfed engine damage. Riot starships have been in the game for what, 2 years now? (since like 3.somethig?) and you FINALLY have gotten around to nerfing engine damage? :p
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Offline Cyborg

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #6 on: September 15, 2012, 02:15:26 pm »
I don't recall this feature. It needs to be turned off or have some kind of toggle.
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Offline Lancefighter

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #7 on: September 15, 2012, 02:17:40 pm »
it has a toggle in the settings somewhere.

Also, I'm apparently really stupid. Theres already mk4 available to research/build from the starship constructor.
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Offline orzelek

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #8 on: September 15, 2012, 02:18:27 pm »
And second, Are you saying there are 4x as many ai ships chasing the shards now? they were already pretty difficult to defend.. At least 48 speed is reasonable.

I haven't seen how badly that hurts recently.
With last few starship re-balances and standard ships also being more balanced this will hurt. Looking at standard exos only they did hurt especially if it had starships theme. And it will generate them 4 times faster so finally all of them will get to knock on your door together :D
And champion gives you 20% more of them and I doubt it's worth that fun.

Offline Lancefighter

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #9 on: September 15, 2012, 02:19:54 pm »
Uh keith, you may want to add some build times to certain modules on the corvettes. 1s build time forcefield at no cost means they will never ever die.
edit; you aso get mk3 laser modules with only mk2 laser tech (might be by design i guess?) you dont get mk3 hbc though. (didn't have the k to check shields)
« Last Edit: September 15, 2012, 02:24:29 pm by Lancefighter »
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Offline Diazo

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #10 on: September 15, 2012, 02:22:47 pm »
I don't recall this feature. It needs to be turned off or have some kind of toggle.

ESC -> Settings - Interface - Enable "Disable Pause on Lost Focus"

D.

Offline TechSY730

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #11 on: September 15, 2012, 02:33:07 pm »
Something from the previous thread I thought was relevant:

So, now that there is a bonus "starship type", are there any plans for refactoring the "I can't believe I'm not a starship" Spire bonus types (ships with a cap <=5) to be built at the starship constructor?
I figured I would be asked that question quickly, but not quite that quickly ;)

Right now I'm just leaving stuff where it is; the main reason the Spire Corvette is in the starship constructor is the modular thing and thus needing its own tab.  We'll see how that works out before considering moving anything else.  I anticipate bug reports of "I unlocked the spire corvette and can't find it anywhere", but not sure how to avoid it.

Quote
Also, will the AI be able to get Spire Corvettes? If so, will they seed in waves and reinforcements like normal ships or like starships?
It should seed them like starships; they won't send a wave of them, though they could send them as the "starship of the wave".
« Last Edit: September 15, 2012, 03:23:10 pm by TechSY730 »

Offline Eternaly_Lost

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #12 on: September 15, 2012, 02:52:57 pm »
Quote
The Shards in the Fallen Spire campaign now move 4x as fast (still immune to all forms of speed-boosting, combat style, etc) and the response "chase spawns" now happen about 4x as often.
Thanks to Eternaly_Lost and others for periodically raising laments at the length of time it can take to get one of those things back home.

My Hulu queue is going to hate you now. But I am certainly a lot happier. I doubt that 4x the number of ships will be that much harder to stop.

Offline Wingflier

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #13 on: September 15, 2012, 03:04:47 pm »
A bonus ship Starship?  Keith, you loveable genius you.  I hope to see more of these as time goes on! :P
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Offline Cinth

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Re: AI War Beta 5.080 "Bonus Round" Released!
« Reply #14 on: September 15, 2012, 04:17:47 pm »
Think I'll finish up my current game before updating. Not far from introducing Spire Hammer to the Fallen Spire. I think they'll be fast friends.
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