AI War Beta 6.035-6.038 "Dire Protector" Released!

[keith.lamothe]

(Crossposted from this blog post)

This one introduces Dire Guardians to the alpha players of the upcoming Vengeance of the Machine expansion.  This won't hurt a bit, really.   Remember, if you're interested in alpha testing for the expansion, please shoot me a PM in the forums.

This release also adds the fifth of six new bonus ship types planned for the expansion: The Protector Starship.  It's our first "finite" counter-shooter in that one of its its module can shoot down, say, 100 missiles in a second (when fully loaded anyway, after that it's about 10 reloads per second) but not more than that.  This is very different than the existing counter-shooter units like the Counter-Missile Turret which could shoot down 10 billion missiles per second if they were all fired at its allies within its range.  Anyway, the new finite-counter mechanic is somewhat CPU/memory intensive so the cap on the Protector is low (2, like several other starships) and its module count is low as well (1 slot per mark), but the overall result is an interesting utility-player type that I hope y'all enjoy :)

There are a few other changes in there too, including a little rebalancing of the new Zenith Devastator and a likely-to-be-popular improvement to the Custom galaxy-map display modes (they now show immobile enemy units you've previously scouted).

Update: 6.036 is out to hotfix a bug in the last version where some old saves would load as if the "Fast Drones" toggle were turned off.

Update: 6.037 is out to fix a bug in the last version that threw errors when loading some saves from a couple versions ago (the protector starship had snuck out, and trying to load one that a wasn't modular with the game now knowing it was modular... yeah).

Update: 6.038 is out to fix a bug (that's actually been there for nearly a month, amusingly enough) preventing the creation of new Defender-mode games.  Also fixed a laundry list of issues recently brought up by testers.

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.

[Wingflier]

Keith did you do a change recently to the Allied (minor faction) Enclave Starships that lowered the amount of units they spit out, but made them individually stronger? Because they simply aren't releasing as many guys as they did before at all, where the Enemy Enclave Starships are still releasing a horde.

[keith.lamothe]

Keith did you do a change recently to the Allied (minor faction) Enclave Starships that lowered the amount of units they spit out, but made them individually stronger? Because they simply aren't releasing as many guys as they did before at all, where the Enemy Enclave Starships are still releasing a horde.

I did do something like that, yes.  The ally and enemy types are separate so the enemy ones didn't get buffed as a result, etc.  I could make the enemy ones have a lower count too, if it helps.

[Wingflier]

Keith did you do a change recently to the Allied (minor faction) Enclave Starships that lowered the amount of units they spit out, but made them individually stronger? Because they simply aren't releasing as many guys as they did before at all, where the Enemy Enclave Starships are still releasing a horde.

I did do something like that, yes.  The ally and enemy types are separate so the enemy ones didn't get buffed as a result, etc.  I could make the enemy ones have a lower count too, if it helps.

No it doesn't matter, I was just trying to make sure it wasn't a bug.

Also:

On the lobby section where you can disable Swallowers, Core Shield Generators, etc, you may now also disable "Fast Drones", which for now simply disables the Spire Blade Spawners and the Tackle Drone Launcher. The idea being that slow drones (like from the enclave starship and Lightning Torpedo Frigate) can be dealt with more easily.

    Thanks to Kahuna for, um, "inspiring" this change.

This sounds like a funny discussion or event.

What is the backstory?

[keith.lamothe]

What is the backstory?

Kahuna doesn't turn AS on because of TDLs.

[Wingflier]

What is the backstory?

Kahuna doesn't turn AS on because of TDLs.

Well they're a bit frustrating to deal with, I'll admit.

Another question: Are all the Dire Guardians 1 type like the Hybrids? Or is there a myriad of different types, like the regular Guardians?

[keith.lamothe]

Another question: Are all the Dire Guardians 1 type like the Hybrids? Or is there a myriad of different types, like the regular Guardians?

There are 15 distinct dire guardian types, and the AI gets different "unlocks" of them kind of like the normal guardians.  So you won't generally see the same ones each game.

They can also go in exos 

[chemical_art]

Yes!

Of course now I'm juggling 4 games that all vie for my attention, all of which have been significantly changed in this last week ( and 3 of which involving Nord / Norse cultures...

[Vyndicu]

This patch somehow broke my spire blade spawner in my private alpha game. I have spire blade spawner mk1/mk2/mk3 researched. I can still use them and build them (via queue item that is left over). I left my research lab, normal one not ARS, in the system where I unlocked spire blade spawner and you can see the ARS tab is grey out.

For some reason I am able to get a second unlock (bright color as opposite grey out) at my most recent hack attempt (At the location where 4 ARS are I unlocked spire railcluster and I was able to unlock TDL). Lil oops?

[Wingflier]

Thank you good sir!

Now, for my next game I shall turn on Hunter, Shark, Vengeful, Reservist, SF Captain, Dire Guardians, and Showdown Devices for maximum punishment!

New Bug: Command Station weirdness

ARS Hacking non-ARS planets still produces deadly response

Couple of significant bugs still in the latest version.

[keith.lamothe]

Thank you good sir!

Now, for my next game I shall turn on Hunter, Shark, Vengeful, Reservist, SF Captain, Dire Guardians, and Showdown Devices for maximum punishment!

Good man.

I recommend mixing the Alarmist type into one of your AIs if you can find a space, it is an excellent vintage to accompany Hunter.

[Wingflier]

This patch somehow broke my spire blade spawner in my private alpha game. I have spire blade spawner mk1/mk2/mk3 researched. I can still use them and build them (via queue item that is left over). I left my research lab, normal one not ARS, in the system where I unlocked spire blade spawner and you can see the ARS tab is grey out.

For some reason I am able to get a second unlock (bright color as opposite grey out) at my most recent hack attempt (At the location where 4 ARS are I unlocked spire railcluster and I was able to unlock TDL). Lil oops?

Incidentally I am encountering this bug as well in my current game. This game was also pre-patch where I had unlocked Spire Blade Spawners, which are no longer showing up in my Factory build options.

Save attached. Check my HW for factories.

I recommend mixing the Alarmist type into one of your AIs if you can find a space, it is an excellent vintage to accompany Hunter.

Concerning the "Special Forces Alarm": When you trigger this beast, is it supposed to send the entire galaxy of current Special Forces army to attack you? Because I've had this thing go off several times before, and no subsequent attacks on my base were forthcoming. Is there some nuance to this I don't understand? I could certainly test it in my next game.

[LordSloth]

I got this question in at the tail end of the last thread, so I'll repost.

It looks like the Gravity Drill AI is seeding 25-37% of its planets with Gravity Drills. In a small sample, roughly 10-15 planets with one Grav Driller AI. Is that intended? I seem to remember more of them. I just spawned a map with two grav drill AIs and ... I think... 26 Grav drills, and the one after that, 29. This seems a little low for 80 stars and both AIs, especially since they have been nerfed to 32 speed limit. I had a cluster-map where I even thought I had no gravity drills until turning on a game with full visibility. There were about ten.

I don't know whether to update the AI text description, consider this a bug, or request it seeds on more planets, but I'll happily update a mistaken ticket I created to actually be relevant.

[LordSloth]

I recommend mixing the Alarmist type into one of your AIs if you can find a space, it is an excellent vintage to accompany Hunter.

Concerning the "Special Forces Alarm": When you trigger this beast, is it supposed to send the entire galaxy of current Special Forces army to attack you? Because I've had this thing go off several times before, and no subsequent attacks on my base were forthcoming. Is there some nuance to this I don't understand? I could certainly test it in my next game.

Well, I've got a very slowly ongoing AAR at the moment with a special forces/alarmist and I'll have feedback on that question in an evening or two. But to check: You're not mixing up "Alarm Post" (Edit: non-guardians, current planet) with "Special Forces Alarm Post" (every special force)?

[ZaneWolfe]

OH COME ON!!!! I haven't even finished my game from the patch before last and now I have to restart... I MUST see the monster that is a Dire Guardian. And a new starship? One that can further protect my starship strike force?! I might have to play a game without starting with blade spawners at this rate just to see all the new starships... Ranting aside, this looks awesome. Cant wait to see this all in action. (At work at the moment so I will be forced to wait a little bit... I wonder if I can convince my boss that its an emergency...)

I do have a question from my recently lost game though. With the new Shark plot I found that when my HW was killed I got even more AIP from the foldouts that came with unlocking the Econ, Logistic and Military command stations. Are those supposed to be causing that kind of interaction with the Shark plot? Granted in a single player game it is completely moot. If it happens you already lost. But in a multiplayer game I can see that as going REALLY badly if one player had unlocked all the command stations and got taken out and suddenly a extreme AIP gain (I cant recall the exact amount but I think it was close to 300 or more) (I did have 2 HWs so that might have been a factor as well) and all of the points going into the Shark strike force as well.

I know that the point of Shark is to find the blood in the water and finish off the wounded human forces, but aren't you supposed to be able to survive the loss of a single player's HWs (s) in a MP game? Right now if you lose a single player in a game with Shark on, I am not sure you will survive, or if you do that it wont cause a deathspiral of AIP and ever growing Shark forces.

Note, all in all I do NOT think there is an issue with this though. IMO Shark is working exactly as intended in this case. I just wanted to make sure that it was supposed to be doing that. If not, I say keep it as is anyway. It gives the AI a great way to deal a killing blow to the players in a MP game and in a SP game it doesn't make even the slightest of differences because you already lost the game.