AI War Beta 5.085-5.086 "Shady Carriers" Released!

[keith.lamothe]

The statement above seems to indicate that the new content is about ready to be finalized/rolled out, but it's unclear if there are substantial plans for balance testing prior to the release date.  And since I have forgotten the release date.. it's hard to estimate.

The end of new content is the beginning of balance/polish in earnest   Though I won't be working 100%-time on AIW during all that time.

Official target release date is October 19th, as the front page of our website says.  That gives about 3 weeks between the last of the new content and the official release.  I would have liked 4, but 3 will do.

[Wanderer]

... and I have been dragged into Borderlands 2, Torchlight 2, Dungeon Defenders, Guild Wars 2, and DoTA 2 so..  I've fallen out of the loop.

Different games, but same story.  Diablo III just ATE me... CoD maps weren't helping, and my buddies are all over me to make sure I get Black Ops 2.

Btw, Hi guys!  I'm back, and I think I'm finally over my burnout.  I'll be bouncing around the boards again, but I probably will keep my trap (mostly) shut awhile since I'm WAY the hell out of date at this point.

[Lancefighter]

I think it took me about 4 or 5 hours ingame time before I posted something completely random begging for a change, after coming back.
Then I spent like 2 weeks posting completely arbitrary things...

[Wanderer]

Holy mother of Change Logs...

I'm still going through (and the Spec Forces changes look AWESOME), but this... just this...

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.
 

Thank you.  I used to go start folding laundry, cooking dinner, and general chores when moving one of these, checking in on the game every 15 minutes or so.

and, because Keith never giveth without taking away...

Added roughly (there's some randomization) one "brutal pick" to each AI homeworld on difficulties 7+.

Oh gods, we're back to triple Raid Engine possibilities on 10/10...  and that may be a 'good' day, from what those core posts look like.

Artillery Guardian: Multiplier vs UltraHeavy from 3 => 5.
Multiplier vs Heavy from 2 => 5.
Multiplier vs Turret from 2 => 5.
Fixed bug where it had a multiplier vs Artillery of 0.1, now that's a multiplier vs Scout.
 Base damage per shot staying at 160k*mk (base and bonus cap-dps now in range of laser guardian's new numbers).
 Health from 1/5th normal guardian health to 1/2.

This thing really didn't need any help... a MK III could already lock down a Dyson in testing.  Ah well.  The rest of the guardians just got DANGEROUS... and that nerfing of the Laser Guardian is nice.

Alright, I'm sure these were hashed, re-hashed, discussed, dissected, rebuilt, destroyed, and Keith ran with his ears bleeding at some point or another, but wow, that's a lot of changes. 

The reinforcement adjustments are massive... how is the reinforcement preferences working out?  That looks damned intriguiging.

[keith.lamothe]

Btw, Hi guys!  I'm back, and I think I'm finally over my burnout.

Welcome back   Pace yourself, human physiology can only stand so much AIW before the AI's subliminal messages erode your will to fight

Thank you.  I used to go start folding laundry, cooking dinner, and general chores when moving one of these, checking in on the game every 15 minutes or so.

Yea, I figured that change would be universally popular among those who survived the chase sequences.  And the others, well, dead men don't talk.

we're back to triple Raid Engine possibilities on 10/10...  and that may be a 'good' day, from what those core posts look like.

If it starts giving 3xCRE I'll probably force it to not seed more than 2.  But yea, I'd like the other ones to be just as scary, or nearly so, and I know the CPA one and some of the eyes need work there.

This thing really didn't need any help... a MK III could already lock down a Dyson in testing.  Ah well.  The rest of the guardians just got DANGEROUS... and that nerfing of the Laser Guardian is nice.

Yea, that's a very recent thing.  The laser guardian was way out ahead of everyone.  By picking 1/2 the OP laser guardian as the balance target for all of them I may have aimed a bit high, we'll see.  I'm just happy to have them closer together in terms of overall threat (though fairly different in quality) and we can work from there.  The main reason I did it at that particular time is that the new method of computing the result of a carrier-early-pop relies on MkV guardians to compress unit counts where simple mark-promoting the actual contents doesn't do enough.  That way we can avoid spirecraft and guardians and whatnot from popping out of the pinata.  Not that I didn't find that entertaining, but I don't think it was ideal for the player experience.

Alright, I'm sure these were hashed, re-hashed, discussed, dissected, rebuilt, destroyed, and Keith ran with his ears bleeding at some point or another, but wow, that's a lot of changes.

It's actually been a bit slow lately, with most of the time going into the remainder of the expansion content

The reinforcement adjustments are massive... how is the reinforcement preferences working out?  That looks damned intriguiging.

Interestingly I haven't heard a whole lot about those, which is probably moderately favorable as responses go.

[Faulty Logic]

we're back to triple Raid Engine possibilities on 10/10

We could be seeing as many as 5 raid engines on one homeworld (3xCRE one RE, and one OSRE), though if the RNG hates you that much you will already have lost come endgame. The new brutals sound... interesting, though still not as bad as a raid engine.

[Hearteater]

For some strange reason, I want the wraith lance to turn ships it hits into wraiths.  I'm not sure what wraiths are or would do.  But in my imagination, they are bad.

[Faulty Logic]

I think it is just a wrath lance. A wraith lance would be too terrible to contemplate.

[Lancefighter]

It should literally shoot out "wraith" items, like that spire ship that shoots tractor things.

And they should deal tons of damage in an aoe if they get into range of anything.

[keith.lamothe]

Incidentally, one of the things created by those minor-faction Dark Spire spawners (the ones triggered by ships dying on their planets) is called a Wraith.

[keith.lamothe]

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