AI War Beta 6.048 "Release Candidate 1" Released!

[keith.lamothe]

(Crossposted from this blog post)

This one is 7.0, unless some fairly critical bug or other such issue comes to our attention over the weekend.

Naturally not much is changed in this particular patch itself (wanting to avoid changing stuff, odd as that may sound from Arcen), but we did add 7 new taunts.  Most were inspired by this thread so thanks to the community for that.  And to Pablo for applying very strange effects to his voice again.

We also fixed a couple important "conflicting AI" issues that only applied to Hybrids and to exo-ships that were either leaders or had lost their leader.  So somewhat limited in scope but now those units "dance" a lot less.

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.

[doctorfrog]

Just checking the latest voice samples... the AI have a very AM sound to them, don't they?

reference! http://pub.psi.cc/ihnmaims.txt

[keith.lamothe]

Just checking the latest voice samples... the AI have a very AM sound to them, don't they?

reference! http://pub.psi.cc/ihnmaims.txt

For once, a reference I didn't intend   Not sure if Pablo did.

[TechSY730]

Responding to your post from the earlier thread:

Could you give details of what rule changes happened for map seeding?

Doesn't seed starships there, but in general the details aren't particularly important.

That sort of "not important" style denial would normally make me suspicious, but considering that this was a change to make it "easier", I'll just take it at face value.
Good to see defensive starships being removed adjacent to human homeworlds though.

Other than that, the only last big things I can think of are making the "assist range circles" show for things like repair range, assist range, gravity range, max forcefields radius range, etc even after the unit is constructed and not only when placed

Is that new since 6.0?

No, I think it's been around since a little after if not at the Unity port. As such, it probably isn't as important to you guys as it is to me.

and balancing the new plots, AI toys of this expansion.

Shark and Hunter both seem to be accomplishing their goals; Hunter could certainly benefit from a more budget-based design but that's deeper than just rebalancing and there's not really time left to re-test the balance of it after such a redesign.

And what do you mean by AI toys?  I haven't heard any concrete balance complaints about the Dire Guardians, other new guardians, new guard-post/command-station stuff the subcommanders get, etc.

Yes, the Dire guardians, and new command stations, and such.

I should of said fixing any balance issues with the new stuff, if any. It seems that there aren't really any going on right now, so nothing much really needs to be done with this.

[Tridus]

Lookin good! Thanks for the alpha invite, I was glad to be able to help out.

[LordSloth]

While I haven't been spotting the 'on-spawn' starships, I've been spotting the 10-25 minute starships adjacent to the homeworld. I'm still iffy on this, but I suspect I can blame the Dyson sphere. After I finish trying out the raiders and showdown devices, I'll do a run w/o, and expect not to get any unexplained nuisances.

[TechSY730]

While I haven't been spotting the 'on-spawn' starships, I've been spotting the 10-25 minute starships adjacent to the homeworld. I'm still iffy on this, but I suspect I can blame the Dyson sphere. After I finish trying out the raiders and showdown devices, I'll do a run w/o, and expect not to get any unexplained nuisances.

Hmm, was it only the "on-spawn" adjacent starships that were stopped, but regular reinforcements afterwards are still allowed?

Anyways, this is still is an improvement.

[LordSloth]

Of course, they were freed into threat, not reinforcing into the system. Still, I'll be keeping eyes on other systems not on the path to the dyson sphere to check that out.

In other news, I'm liking the Raider fleetships. So far, they seem surprisingly capable of taking down missile posts edit: and zenith bombards and those pesky plasma sieges headed for my command. As well, I need to find and close one of my old bug reports. I can now lay mines and have them come out at the angle I planned them at, tight-packed or not.

So... actually, my feedback here is one patch out of date.

You can probably mark tickets 9750 resolved since I was part of getting that test done, and it looks to be the same issue as 11817 . I can't speak to 11041 as that is someone else's Kahuna's issue, but I suspect it is resolved as well.

[LordSloth]

If I hover a starship and it says "Free Roaming Defender", does that mean it was part of system reinforcements? This planet is adjacent to my homeworld, but an hour or so in before I even thought to check after I'd blamed the Dyson. Going back ten minutes in autosaves, I don't see 'Threat' there using scouts and the system filter. It isn't as much of a threat now given that it won't be a mkIV system, and almost certainly MK1.

[keith.lamothe]

If I hover a starship and it says "Free Roaming Defender", does that mean it was part of system reinforcements?

It doesn't say either way.

If you want to know, press F3 to toggle debug info on and mouseover it again.  My guess is that it's either a PlanetaryRoamer (which basically all the starting starships are, and they just kinda go wherever in AI space, becoming threat if they see human military forces) or it's just plain threat.  If it's a guard ship the F3 info will say what it's guarding.  If it's PlanetaryRoamer the F3 info will say so.  If it says neither it's just threat.

[LordSloth]

It's a planetary roamer, then. Not a huge risk given how long it probably takes to buy, I'll continue to pay attention, but I doubt it's anything to worry about now that my fleet can clear homeworld adjacent systems without the time and resources that MKIVs required me to sink into them. Plenty of opportunity to clear the fleet and posts ahead of time so I can group up on the starships when they actually appear. And this was only a MK1 Heavy Bomber, not the MK4 and MK2 I noticed in a previous game (and that might have been a response to a dyson).

Attached save, old version, Planet Mbzonious, near ai command, adjacent to my homeworld, MKIV flagship, MK2 Zenith Starship, Planetary Roamers, 15 minutes.

Edit again:  Reinforce logs from around that time don't show any spire starship purchases or flagship purchases, indicating it might have been a side effect of the strength 10 dyson.

[TechSY730]

Speaking of odd "defender status":

9779: AI Z Elec Bomber in planetary roamer mode, but not actually roaming

It's a pretty trivial issue, as the ships do seem to behave properly, but still thought I would let you guys know.

[Toranth]

You can probably mark tickets 9750 resolved since I was part of getting that test done, and it looks to be the same issue as 11817 . I can't speak to 11041 as that is someone else's Kahuna's issue, but I suspect it is resolved as well.

11070 can be closed as well, as it was another of the line placement issues.  It works fine now.

[LordSloth]

Awesome:
I heard my player defeat taunt (ARF).

Not awesome:
I heard my player defeat taunt.

Apparently Dire Laser Guardian made it through liberated dyson. 

[Histidine]

You know, I didn't say anything earlier but the wriggling bug was actually one of the things keeping exos manageable in my last FS 4 8/8 game. But the guardian cost increase will most likely fix that problem, so it's all good