Author Topic: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!  (Read 4753 times)

Offline keith.lamothe

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AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« on: September 27, 2012, 12:03:17 pm »
(Crossposted from this blog post)

This one contains the last new content that was part of the original promise in the Ancient Shadows expansion, namely the last "main" nebula scenario (which is where I got the release name, it's pretty intense) and the largest champion hull size.  There's still other things I may add over the next few weeks (modular fortress versions of some champion modules, some more active-use abilities for the champions, maybe more scenarios, etc), but that's it for the publicly released features list when we opened up preorders.  I've still got to close up the loophole that allows duplicate scenarios within one game, but I'm waiting until I'm sure all the scenarios for 6.0 are defined before doing that.

Fixed a few bugs too, but was focused on the scenario so not much else got done.  More of the usual smaller-but-more-numerous-changes updates to come soon :)

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.
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Offline LordSloth

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #1 on: September 27, 2012, 04:12:06 pm »
Fantastic. Are you sure this isn't some evil scheme to keep me from sleeping?

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #2 on: September 27, 2012, 04:26:24 pm »
Fantastic. Are you sure this isn't some evil scheme to keep me from sleeping?
Not at all :)
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Offline Lancefighter

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2012, 08:37:00 pm »
Hey so silly question - are you planning on making any changes to the nebula spawning stuff?

At the moment, I feel like it is entirely too easy to have nebulas all spawn on the opposite side of the map somehow..

I'm not really sure if this is a problem or not, I am just asking if there are any intended changes.

(I kinda feel like you could throw in a nebula spawning 'plot' that allows for the player to decide how dense nebulas are or something)
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Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2012, 11:31:00 pm »
Hey so silly question - are you planning on making any changes to the nebula spawning stuff?

At the moment, I feel like it is entirely too easy to have nebulas all spawn on the opposite side of the map somehow..
The nebula locations are picked before homeworlds are picked, so it can't adjust nebula positions in light of homeworlds.

I could force them to be more spaced out, though, which would tend to produce a more even distribution and thus more likely that you have a certain % nearby.

Quote
(I kinda feel like you could throw in a nebula spawning 'plot' that allows for the player to decide how dense nebulas are or something)
In theory, yes, but in practice it wouldn't be a good idea since you need at least 9 nebulae to get to the last scenario (that gives the largest hull).  So I'm actually going to be making it seed at least 9 on all maps in the future.  Also, if it gave more than 9 that means duplicate scenarios, which I don't want to have happen in the actual non-beta version.  I want to add more scenarios so that 9 isn't the max I can have, but running kinda short on time and other parts of the game need attention for the official version.  I imagine at least one or two more will make it in but there's not a lot of room between that and the minimum of 9 for an intensity slider :)
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Offline Lancefighter

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #5 on: September 28, 2012, 12:44:24 am »
Ah, ok. I'm not really sure what the initial plan was for the 9 nebulas -  I didn't realize the plan was for 9 unique scenarios that were present in each game.
I guess that would mostly make the point of my suggestion pointless..

Actually, in *theory*, I believe you mentioned somewhere that nebula missions are spawned post-exploration.. Meaning you could have more than 9 nebulas in theory, but they wouldnt actually do anything past the 9th? I totally understand if that isnt really the idea of the nebulas though.

And a maybe final point then - What is your opinion on the nebula missions being shown on the campaign map pre-game start? (or maybe a slightly different point - Make the nebula spawn logic for 1-2 of the nebulas dependent on homeworld spawn location? For instance, youd always have at least one nebula within 2 jumps, and a second within 3-4 jumps or something) Again, neither of these are particularly important, I just have slight minor issues with the lack of consistency the champion ship has at some times.

And completely random other point about consistency - I feel there are minor issues with unlock consistency in the early game, but I am not really sure if this is ideal or not? Like its mentioned that you will always get destroyer at the second nebula, which is nice.. But sometimes you end up getting both modular fortresses, and something else completely useless on the way. I feel like there could maybe be more gating on this (for instance, you cant unlock modular fortresses until the third nebula, or maybe you will always get only modules in your first nebula..)
I'm not really sure how people would like these? Or if the ideas are even somewhat valid (I think it might be a bit late to be bringing up this even).

I dunno. I'm mostly posting random stuff.
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Offline Cinth

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #6 on: September 28, 2012, 01:05:46 am »
Nebula are seeded on the galaxy at map gen. Scenarios are generated when you first go into the wormhole for the nebula. The first has always been that way. The second was changed awhile back for whatever reason (can't recall right offhand).
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Opened your save. My computer wept. Switched to the ST planet and ship icons filled my screen, so I zoomed out. Game told me that it _was_ totally zoomed out. You could seriously walk from one end of the inner grav well to the other without getting your feet cold.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #7 on: September 28, 2012, 11:04:55 am »
The main reason for having the scenario be selected when you enter is so there can be a logical progression between them (so certain scenarios don't seed until certain others have been completed, or until a certain number of other scenarios have been completed, etc).  The secondary reason was so that old saves would still be able to see the newer scenarios as they were added.

Anyway, yea, I could just let the extra nebulae have nothing in them (until another scenario is added, anyway), but that doesn't seem ideal to me.
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Offline LaughingThesaurus

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #8 on: September 28, 2012, 04:47:35 pm »
Well there was another weirdness where you could have fog of war off and see the scenario before even starting it, wasn't there?

Offline Volatar

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #9 on: September 29, 2012, 10:34:23 pm »
Do you think it's about time to get rid of the 3.0 to 4.0 settings converter that shows up on first run, considering we are moving on to version 6.0 real soon?  :P

Offline Aklyon

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #10 on: September 30, 2012, 01:06:53 am »
But what about if someone appears out of nowhere with an old AI War 3.0 copy soon? :P

Offline Volatar

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #11 on: September 30, 2012, 01:25:33 am »
I am not sure you even can upgrade from 3.0 to 6.0. I think you have to go to 4.0 first.

Offline bonreu

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #12 on: September 30, 2012, 01:47:44 am »
Wait, are you saying the white X next to Keith's name means that hes offline? first time to see everything i guess.

Offline keith.lamothe

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #13 on: September 30, 2012, 09:15:29 am »
Wait, are you saying the white X next to Keith's name means that hes offline? first time to see everything i guess.
It was probably just the prototype cloaking device.
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Offline LaughingThesaurus

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Re: AI War Beta 5.087 "Brawl Royale" Released!
« Reply #14 on: September 30, 2012, 01:22:12 pm »
Offline is a white box isn't it?

*cut to somebody in a stealth fighter showing metaphorically how far over my head that white x comment went*