AI War Beta 7.046 "Beltsander of Worlds MkIII" Released!

[keith.lamothe]

(Crossposted from this blog post)

This one is yet more polish work for the new expansion, and also for the rest of the game in preparation for the 8.0 official release.

That means almost entirely bugfixes, balancing, etc.  Including a lot of text work and updating the Objectives screen logic, etc.  Here's what's left (not yet done) between now and 8.0:

- We want to do a new trailer for the whole game.  If you have any saves that show the game being awesome (whether that's the AI being clever, the explosions being massive, or whatever; up to you) please send them our way with instructions on where/how to see the awesomeness :)

- I need to go through the tutorial again; I believe I've kept it mostly accurate thus far but another pass is necessary, and more importantly it needs to cover at least the basics of Hacking.  And mention salvage, for that matter.

- I need to add entries on the steam side for the new achievements.

- Further bugfixes and balance changes based on what you tell me needs dealt with for 8.0.  Generally this means avoiding big changes, but you get the idea.

- Adding in the awesome new music from Pablo.  Probably my favorite part of each expansion :)

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.

[TechSY730]

A polish request(s) (may need to be put on new thread).

-Clean up how cloaked ships appear on side bar (instead of lumped together in one giant entry, and make it easier at a glance to tell what cloaked ships there are)
-Allow setting preferred target of selected unit(s) via right clicking on ship on side bar (this includes, critically, ships that aren't on the planet currently but are in the side bar because of F1 cycling)
-My tooltip about cloaked ships needs to no longer mention that cloaking hides ship type identity. It no longer does, only ship position

There are some more things that I think that can be done to make preferred targets and the side bar more useful and intuitive, but they would be big enough things to no longer fall under the banner of polish. Even some of the above is pushing it, even if they are, IMHO, long overdue.

[keith.lamothe]

I'm mainly looking for stuff that's not working that was working in 7.0, or for stuff added since 7.0 that's buggy or imbalanced.

I'm happy to look at other stuff (like the long-and-many-requested set-target-by-sidebar thing) after the 8.1 official with the updated unity version and linux support, but for now I'm trying to avoid adding bugs so that 8.0 (and 8.1, which is mainly the aforementioned unity version change) are actually stable versions for people who don't want to get caught up in the necessary consequences of ongoing development   As much, at least.

[TechSY730]

Sounds reasonable.

Then, the only thing on that list that really applies is my tip of the day change, as I missed that one in the compilation of text problems.

[keith.lamothe]

Oh, gotcha.  I didn't connect tooltip with tip-of-the-day.

Yea, in general the tip-of-the-day stuff should be gone over.

[TechSY730]

All that aside, I am very happy with how AI war is progressing lately. Looks like a much nicer, more consistent, less annoying experience already.

There are a few more issues I will rally to get fixed by stable, but overall, I think you are doing great.

[keith.lamothe]

AI War: now with 20% less teeth-grinding!



Glad it's been improving.

What are the "few more issues" you had in mind?

[TechSY730]

AI War: now with 20% less teeth-grinding!



Glad it's been improving.

What are the "few more issues" you had in mind?

Hmm, would you like them alphabetical, chronological, or order of importance...


I'm kidding.


The biggest one right now I can think of at the moment is something that I have not been personally hit by but has annoyed lots of people pretty deeply.
The AI can still get swallowing units when swallowers are turned off. Particularly exos, but it seems that is not the only case this can happen (Mk. V unlocks too?)
Actually, testing should be done for all of the other cases too (heavy defense, cloaking, etc), but it has been observed only for swallowers AFIAK.
See: http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=15563 (powerslavers), http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=15214 (starship dissasemblers and exos)

Some others (in rough order of importance):
- Several "manufactory like" things still don't have an intragalactic warpgate type hooked up to it (rebel colonies, spire ship yards)
- "Psuedo-starship" fleet ships (mostly the spire stuff, like spire stealth battlecruisers) and other invariant cap, low cap ships probably should get swallow immunity, for similar reasons starships do
- Astro-trains, except for the tachyon astro train, need to lose tachyon beams
- Flak turret could use buff (the health (even if it has the greatest cap health of the standard turrets) and DPS (even if it hits max targets each hit), still aren't really enough to justify its low range) It isn't so far off to need drastic changes (like 5x buff would be overkill), but it is enough to make people care about them less
- Attritioners' balance (both the capturable and the spirecraft one, though the spirecraft one needs it less) needs a look-over

[TechSY730]

Oh, and not related to AI war, but still a little annoying.

Arcen logo on mantis is broken (http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=15557)

[Salamander]

Looking forward to the new stuff and going to buy friends copies of the exp pack once it hits the Steam store (you will play this game!  >D ). Still getting used to all the changes.

I heartily concur with much of what TechSY730 says; and especially the warp gates for other constructors like the spire yards and the flak turrets may need a balance pass.

One thing I would add is that perhaps having warp points that are under imminent attack being known via the Advanced Warp Sensor could indicate that on the normal system map instead of or in addition to flashing on the minimap. The only time I engage the minimap anymore is to check for where the attacks are coming from.

I knew we had a lot of changes incoming for ship health and damage, and it was an eye-opener to be sure, but I'm curious as to some ship healths. Riot Control ships seem to have very low health compared to say flagships despite similar size. I know size is not necessarily a factor but it seems very low in comparison indeed.

Also, are tugs never going to make their triumphant return? I miss those crazy little guys!

[Vinco]

I'd like to lobby for a resolution to http://www.arcengames.com/mantisbt/view.php?id=15565

Right now, there's nothing in the game to warn players that putting a spire city on a nomad will block FS campaign progress once it migrates back into AI territory, and I'm probably not the only person who will give it a try.

[Qatu]

 I think everyone in the beta tried it and then just moved on and completed the game without the end spire. It's a funny thing. Once. Good idea to add some text about it in the spire city builder.

 Maybe there should also be a note somewhere in the game that all the alternate win conditions are harder then a normal win.

[Draco18s]

Riot Control ships seem to have very low health compared to say flagships despite similar size. I know size is not necessarily a factor but it seems very low in comparison indeed.

Its because they get shield modules.

[Pumpkin]

Riot Control ships seem to have very low health compared to say flagships despite similar size. I know size is not necessarily a factor but it seems very low in comparison indeed.

Its because they get shield modules.

And face a well-buffed special forces fleet: you'll cry to get them nerf

[Salamander]

Riot Control ships seem to have very low health compared to say flagships despite similar size. I know size is not necessarily a factor but it seems very low in comparison indeed.

Its because they get shield modules.

And face a well-buffed special forces fleet: you'll cry to get them nerf

Makes sense. I've always had a special love of using these ships. The AI can be annoying with them tis true, but then the AI is annoying with almost anything!