Ai War is a very pleasant surprise!

[Epsilon]

I was looking around on new games on impulsedriven.com and I came across "Ai War". And I thought it was a very impressive feat to create a wholly original game like this, but I had doubts if it was actually any good or fun to play.
I went and had a look at the tutorial videos and whatever else I could find on youtube and what have you, I must say I was sold then and there.
While I with somewhat shaking hands typed in my CC info, I realised I hadn't felt this giddy in anticipation about a new gaming experience in a long time, not since I was installing "Fallout" on my pc back in 98, and before that when I was installing "X-Com: UFO Defence" on my Amiga 1200 in 94, but I digress.

I fired up the game and I played the tutorial and I was baffled at the amount of stuff possible in this game, not to mention the Ai. I now find myself wondering if I should go to work tomorrow, or call in sick - something I've not done since I skipped school over X-Com

I'm happy I discovered this gem of a game; such originality and procedurally evolving complex gameplay I've not seen since X-Com, and it's great to see a studio actively supporting their game post launch, and talking on their own forums, thumbs up for Arcen Games, way up.

[x4000]

Hey there Epsilon, and welcome to the forums!  I'm so glad to hear you're getting so into the game.  Wait until you see some of the graphical upgrades from (the upcoming) version 1.013, they'll knock your socks off.   It's definitely a high honor to capture someone's attention the way Fallout or X Com did, I'm always really happy to hear from people who are so into it.  I certainly enjoy it, but it's really nice that other people do, too!

As you get more into the game, if you start having suggestions or want to chat strategy with other players (or want to contribute your own ideas to the community wiki), you know where to come!

[Pandemic]

You should see X dude, he's all over the place . Freaking prereleases every day... If you're going to complain about anything, it'll be that he releases so many prereleases that it's hard to keep up-to-date .

I would agree; it's an excellent game, with many possibilities, many, many, many hours of gameplay, and relaxing (because I don't feel like I have to be the best (see: coop gaming )). I get the same feeling in L4D... but that's a whole other story xD.

If you hate gaming by yourself you should give me, or various other people around here, a shout .


-Pandemic

[eRe4s3r]

Indeed, when i first saw AI war i was utterly confused, to be fair i only read the review on "out of eight" (though i tend not to agree with his scoring 90% of the time)

The problem is that review is from ages ago and the game today looks, feels and plays much much different from version 1.0 , or indeed from just 2 weeks ago.

The amount of work x4000 puts into this game is insane - Though there is still a billion things one can change and improve, somehow i have the hope that this Indy game might be only (new) game in existence that actually evolves to cater the interests of many player groups and kinds at the same time, without sacrificing core gameplay, but with adding much more candy around this core gameplay which will always keep the game fresh.

Heck just imagine how different the game is going to be in a month! i bought it at patch 1.09 ... now at 1.13 the game is completely and utterly changed , much for the better too. And all bugs and problems are fixed within a day! Where else would you ever find such support?

Though i still cringe that nobody in all the time of making this game suggested using additive blending ;P

I am tempted to just stay in hibernation for a month and then awake and gawk at all the new stuff and ideas that are in Ai war since the last time i played...

[Admiral]

I hope you skipped work today.

[Echo35]

That's pretty much the exact same thing that happened to me. I hopped on Impulse one day and saw AI War in the "Whats New" tab. It looked impressive and it was only $20, so I thought "Why not?". I can't remember the last time a game has consumed me so much. I can't stop playing. Even when none of my group is on I'll play single player and experiment with different AI, fleet arrangements, etc. Honestly I've been playing this little $20 indie game more than any other game on my hard drive, and that's saying something, seeing as my Steam list alone is over 25 games (Installed that is). And the constant updates are certainly a good thing. X makes so many damn pre-releases I have a folder on my Live Mesh account solely for storing the patches so I can keep my laptop and PC up to date! Rockin' game! Now I just gotta convince some of my LAN buddies to get it so we can play a game in one sitting >.<

[Haagenti]

I'm also consumed by it, but I play it only solo. I simply find it too hard to arrange a series of multi-hour sessions with other people.

[Echo35]

I simply find it too hard to arrange a series of multi-hour sessions with other people.

Well if you're interested, that's what I've been doing. Already got Pandemic and DarkFox in a regular game, and just got someone else to join once we finish this one.

[Haagenti]

I simply find it too hard to arrange a series of multi-hour sessions with other people.

Well if you're interested, that's what I've been doing. Already got Pandemic and DarkFox in a regular game, and just got someone else to join once we finish this one.

I would be but:
a) I'm in Europe, and can play only in the evening (work and all that)
b) my schedule is really chaotic right now (even more work and all that)
so I can't really commit at this moment

[Epsilon]

Hey
Thats certainly a nice welcome!
Sorry for not replying, but I've just moved this past weekend, ended up not having internet for 3 days... atleast I had Ai War!
the 1.0.13 dlc has indeed knocked my socks off -thats some wicked pyrotechnics there.  
I applied it to my impulse version, it asked for the key and I input the one in the mail... it worked. Atleast I don't have to wait for the update this way.

Good to see that I'm not alone in suddenly discovering this gem of a game, thats both good and bad though, good because the community is enlarging, but bad because it means the game could do with some more exposure!, I'll certainly keep talking about it to friends and on internet forums.

And no I didn't stay at home to play, I actually went to work that day, in these times of financial crisis one should be happy having a place enabling to pay ones bills.
We should try beating up the ai at one point, although I'm still pretty useless playing against some of the tougher ai's - a fact that keeps on surprising me...

[x4000]

Hey Epsilon,

Sounds like work was definitely the right choice, but I'm glad that you've had ample opportunity to enjoy AI War.   And thanks for the kudos on the 1.013 dlc, there's lots more where that came from!

Any and all exposure is always welcome, like any indie title that's something we are always in need of.  A lot of our early success has come from people talking about the game and saying positive things, and that's let to something of a snowball effect that keeps the sales coming in at a reasonable but not stellar clip.  We're actually one of the best-selling non-blockbuster indie titles around, but that just goes to show the difference between a blockbuster indie title and all the others.

So, in many respects, we're doing extremely well for an indie title and Stardock seems to definitely consider us a big hit, but by the same token it's not to the point yet where it's self-sustaining.  There's a huge no-man's land between the silent indie failures and the blockbuster successes, and we're somewhere in that space.  There are some interesting deals in the works which (if they don't fall through) will hopefully rocket us up into the blockbuster level, but nothing is certain and some of these sorts of things take a long time (and have already been in the works for months in a few cases).  So, in the meantime, if there's any sustainable success for AI War, I think it's going to be based on people talking about the game in other forums, getting their friends to look at it, etc.  Between a quarter and a third of the traffic to this site comes from word-of-mouth sources like that, so it clearly makes a difference!

Anyway, all that's to say, thanks very much for your support and also the kind words.