AI War Beta 7.034-7.035 "When Cities Attack!" Released!

[keith.lamothe]

(Crossposted from this blog post)

This one is mainly an iteration on recently-in-progress stuff:

- Hacking used to scale just with your hacking balance, but this could lead to hacks not getting more dangerous).  Then it was changed to scale just with hacking-spent, but that got uncontrollably dangerous past a certain point no matter your hacking balance).  So now it's something of a middle ground, with the balance reducing the response again but with a minimum response that increases with hacking-spent.  Long story short you shouldn't be stuck with large hacking balances that you can't spend without the sky falling, but the response should also never be anemic.  We'll see; more feedback is of course welcome (and needed).

- Spire Cities are now much more fearsome, to correct for years of numeric creep among non-superweapon units.  This is one of those changes made easier by the recent global stat-downscaling.  The AI looks pretty unhappy about this.

- Champion Alt-Progress is now much more streamlined in how you get new module/hull/mod-fort/etc unlocks: it just all comes through gaining levels now  (which is done entirely through gaining knowledge), rather than needing to capture/hack certain things.  This is a more passive approach, but ultimately the normal-progress approach of nebula scenarios to gain XP and unlocks is the "active" option, and alt-progress is just for folks who'd like to have their champion toys without having to go radically out of their way to get them.  So we'll see how that goes.  For any of you interested in the alt-progress approach to champions, please do let us know how it feels.

And there's a bunch of various bugfixes and smaller balance changes, etc, including fixing some bugs preventing the loading of some older saves (from 3.x or earlier days).

Update: 7.035 is out to hotfix a null-exception bug in last version's attempt to fix thing with exo ships with cloaked targets camping the cloaked target.

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.

[Fleet Unity]

I noticed that the command "cmd:activate expansion 5" to turn on Vengeance of the Machine in a game that does not have it enabled still does not work am i typing it wrong or does it not work because it does not have a key to unlock it? I know expansion 5 is auto unlocked when you buy it on STEAM anyway.

[Mad Rubicant]

Now when excess reinforcement strength (that would be lost due to capping) is redirected to wave strength it has a difficulty-specific multiplier applied to reduce it. So on Diff 10 it's still brutal but on Diff 7 it's much more relaxed about it.

Does this mean I can go back and win my 'what memo?' game? How big will the waves be at 800-something AIP and diff 8?

[keith.lamothe]

Now when excess reinforcement strength (that would be lost due to capping) is redirected to wave strength it has a difficulty-specific multiplier applied to reduce it. So on Diff 10 it's still brutal but on Diff 7 it's much more relaxed about it.

Does this mean I can go back and win my 'what memo?' game? How big will the waves be at 800-something AIP and diff 8?

I don't know exactly how big they'll be, but at Diff 8 the contribution from reinforcements will be roughly 1/3rd of what it used to be.  So probably worth another shot.

It should still kill you if you try to take the whole galaxy, though.

[Mad Rubicant]

Now when excess reinforcement strength (that would be lost due to capping) is redirected to wave strength it has a difficulty-specific multiplier applied to reduce it. So on Diff 10 it's still brutal but on Diff 7 it's much more relaxed about it.

Does this mean I can go back and win my 'what memo?' game? How big will the waves be at 800-something AIP and diff 8?

I don't know exactly how big they'll be, but at Diff 8 the contribution from reinforcements will be roughly 1/3rd of what it used to be.  So probably worth another shot.

Let's see, if the waves were about 60% overflow, the 30k ship wave would be ~12k normally, probably a bit more. Add 1/3 of 18k, and I get 18k. Sure, they're mark 3, but my homeworld can handle that. The only thing I'm truly worried about is when I hit Tech Level 4.

It should still kill you if you try to take the whole galaxy, though.

Them be fightin' words.
With the turret change, I should be able to make a line of turret planets down to my homeworld as an extended beachhead. It's not like I don't have 3 million energy.

[Draco18s]

I noticed that the command "cmd:activate expansion 5" to turn on Vengeance of the Machine in a game that does not have it enabled still does not work am i typing it wrong or does it not work because it does not have a key to unlock it? I know expansion 5 is auto unlocked when you buy it on STEAM anyway.

So...you're trying to use a cheat command to avoid spending $5?

[keith.lamothe]

I noticed that the command "cmd:activate expansion 5" to turn on Vengeance of the Machine in a game that does not have it enabled still does not work am i typing it wrong or does it not work because it does not have a key to unlock it? I know expansion 5 is auto unlocked when you buy it on STEAM anyway.

So...you're trying to use a cheat command to avoid spending $5?

I doubt he lacks the expansion, but perhaps it wasn't enabled when a particular game was started.

Anyway, yea, the activate expansion command doesn't work for VotM, I'm not exactly sure why, possibly I just never implemented it, though I thought it was generalized enough to work.

[Fleet Unity]

I noticed that the command "cmd:activate expansion 5" to turn on Vengeance of the Machine in a game that does not have it enabled still does not work am i typing it wrong or does it not work because it does not have a key to unlock it? I know expansion 5 is auto unlocked when you buy it on STEAM anyway.

So...you're trying to use a cheat command to avoid spending $5?

I doubt he lacks the expansion, but perhaps it wasn't enabled when a particular game was started.

Anyway, yea, the activate expansion command doesn't work for VotM, I'm not exactly sure why, possibly I just never implemented it, though I thought it was generalized enough to work.

Ok thanks and yes I do own them all, AI War Fleet Command is one of my favorite space games it was an older save and I was just curious why the command did not work as all the others did.

[Tridus]

Did the AI get Riot ships before, or am I just lucky that it decided that I don't need engines?

[Draco18s]

Did the AI get Riot ships before, or am I just lucky that it decided that I don't need engines?

Riots are one of the AI's newer toys.

[Tridus]

Ah, okay.

New champion alt progress works pretty well. It feels really fast in a FS game because you take so many worlds, would probably feel good in a more normal game. One thing I am wondering is about the number of module unlocks. It seems like I have less of them at level 50 than I would have in the past having done all the scenarios. That looks intended going by the changelog, as you can keep getting them at very high levels now.

IMO right now the Nemesis exo isn't that scary, on intensity 5 in a 7/7 game. Even before I had any FS toys and was just using standard mk II turrets and a Zenith mod fort, I was wiping the floor with it using a fairly standard defense setup in a chokepoint. Might want to hear from some others on it before you do anything.

With the Spire City up, it's free metal.

[keith.lamothe]

New champion alt progress works pretty well. It feels really fast in a FS game because you take so many worlds, would probably feel good in a more normal game.

Glad it's working out thus far.  And yea, on FS most superweapons are pretty different.  Golems and Spirecraft also require taking territory, and in FS you can basically just grab most of them with impunity.  Alt-progress gets a similar impact, though it's more perceptible because it's not "and now you have the opportunity to get all these things", it's "and now you have all these things".

ne thing I am wondering is about the number of module unlocks. It seems like I have less of them at level 50 than I would have in the past having done all the scenarios. That looks intended going by the changelog, as you can keep getting them at very high levels now.

It was intentional but as I did it I literally wondered "is this enough module unlocks?".  Right now it basically "ends" at 8 (with more as you gain more levels, but getting past 55 is pretty late game).  Should it be more like 10? 12?

IMO right now the Nemesis exo isn't that scary, on intensity 5 in a 7/7 game. Even before I had any FS toys and was just using standard mk II turrets and a Zenith mod fort, I was wiping the floor with it using a fairly standard defense setup in a chokepoint. Might want to hear from some others on it before you do anything.

Yea, I'll wait on more feedback but thanks for pointing it out.

It's tricky because on 7/7 it really shouldn't be all _that_ scary to a player who knows the game fairly well.  That said, a 10% or 20% buff may well be in order, and then see how it goes from there.

With the Spire City up, it's free metal.

With Spire Cities and Capital Ships, you're going to need it.

[relmz32]

It seems that my mk 1 Z hydras are not spawning heads at 50% In a game I just started on 7.034

[Tridus]

ne thing I am wondering is about the number of module unlocks. It seems like I have less of them at level 50 than I would have in the past having done all the scenarios. That looks intended going by the changelog, as you can keep getting them at very high levels now.

It was intentional but as I did it I literally wondered "is this enough module unlocks?".  Right now it basically "ends" at 8 (with more as you gain more levels, but getting past 55 is pretty late game).  Should it be more like 10? 12?

10 would be better I think, at that level. It feels like I'm missing a lot of them compared to a normal champion game (I don't have railguns, photon lances, IREs, reclaimers, the doom gun things... might have paralyzers, don't remember).

[Bognor]

One thing I am wondering is about the number of module unlocks. It seems like I have less of them at level 50 than I would have in the past having done all the scenarios. That looks intended going by the changelog, as you can keep getting them at very high levels now.

It was intentional but as I did it I literally wondered "is this enough module unlocks?".  Right now it basically "ends" at 8 (with more as you gain more levels, but getting past 55 is pretty late game).  Should it be more like 10? 12?

I'd wondered that when I first saw the changelog.  I guess one thing to remember is that in nebulae, many of the modules are really weak, and you're really, really hoping to get one of two or three specific large modules and one of two or three specific small modules.  Whereas in the main galaxy, all the modules should be useful.  I guess this is one of those cases where reducing the options in a single game leads to more variety across games, as players are forced to experiment with different modules.