Going for my first game of AI War. Should I use the expansions?

[Mánagarmr]

There is some real good discussion coming out of this. Would it be worth coming to a general consensus and trying to come up with a lobby script? I tried tooling around with a few of the lobby scripts myself, but I am the farthest thing from a programmer and it wasn't long before I was starting to think of the tall bottle of scotch hidden in the upper shelf of my closet.

I've played this game since way back in the 2.x version somewhere...and I've never bothered with scripts. Mostly because I have no real need for them, or I feel the work / benefit ratio is off.

[Hearteater]

This biggest reason for such a script would be something included with the game as a "First Game" type thing for new players.  Game setup is pretty intimidating.

[keith.lamothe]

but I am the farthest thing from a programmer and it wasn't long before I was starting to think of the tall bottle of scotch hidden in the upper shelf of my closet.

Hmm, that may be the first time I've written software that's driven someone to drink.

(Remembers some of those AARs)

Actually, nevermind.

This biggest reason for such a script would be something included with the game as a "First Game" type thing for new players.  Game setup is pretty intimidating.

The "Beginner Game" script is designed for that purpose (just pick Beginner Game, pick a HW, click start; no other setup required), and there are suggestions to use it both in the tutorial and the "This looks like your first game" popup that happens the first time someone opens the lobby in a profile that's never started/loaded a non-tutorial game.

There are ways I could have the game suggest it more forcibly, but I'm not sure folks would want that.

[Wanderer]

Hmm, that may be the first time I've written software that's driven someone to drink.
(Remembers some of those AARs)
Actually, nevermind.

<--------------

[Jus7ice]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone, there are some pretty comprehensive replies in here. I will get a chance to start a game pretty soon here hopefully. I might be able to reply with my experiences.

Keith, about the first game popup. When I got this game months and months ago, I opened it up and looked around in the menus a bit. Only recently did I actually do the tutorials. Now when I open the start game screen I don't get the popup and I have no memory of what it said. My usage may not be typical but perhaps the first game detection could be replaced with some sort of button that brings it up. The setup options are actually prettty intimidating. I'm sure the customization will be awesome to have once I know what I'm doing, but to start it leaves me not really knowing how to start to get the "AI War experience". This is the perspective of a fairly casual RTS player which doesn't appear to be the target audience for this game, but there you have it.

[brianc]

Oh yeah, this game overwhelmed me so much that I spent my first ten hours of AI War actually reading about how to play online.  Now, that didn't help nearly as much as I thought it would; I could not finish my intermediate tutorial no matter how many times I tried and could not beat even a level 1 on my first 40 hours.  Now I comfortably play with two 7.3's and the medium random AI's (I was steadily progressing but I so rarely have time to play since my son was born last year) and I have no clue what clicked but I'd certainly recommend starting very slowly maybe jumping from 1 to 3 to 5 to 6 to 7 or something along those lines.  I actually worked my way from 1 to 7.3 doing everything in between!  Reading everyone's recommendations makes me feel like a terrible gamer 

In the same manner I'd recommend starting with no expansion packs or minor factions. Even if it makes for a much simpler game it will reduce the craziness on an early go.

[Kahuna]

I just updated my "Beachheading" thread and wrote a new one called "Ship Combos". You might wanna read them.
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,11391.msg129159.html#msg129159
http://www.arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,11996.msg129236.html#msg129236

[Bognor]

Since we've already necro'ed...

I believe the nasty guardians alluded to by Hearteater and Lord Sloth only appear on difficulty 8+.

The single piece of advice I'd give a newbie would be to start with the default fog-of-war and use the Objectives tab in the references screen.

[LordSloth]

To be clear, a lot of the nastier guardians appear on 8+, but EMP, Tractor, Gravity, Warp Gate Guardians all appear on 7+, if not lower. They're not particularly bad, but they're an unnecessary level of complication to watch for, opening up previously safe territory to waves, disabling defenses if you overlook them, etc. ... I'm pretty certain you won't see EMP and Warp on 6, but I wouldn't know where to doublecheck.

[Bognor]

My mistake; thanks LordSloth. 

According to the wiki EMP and Warp Gate Guardians appear on difficulty 7+, and Self-Destruction Guardians at 8+.  The rest are presumably present at all difficulties, unless something's changed.  Nasty.

[PicardsFlute]

Sorry to necro this old thread (again), but it seems to be the only one on the topic.

I'm setting up my first game right now. (I've already breezed through the intermediate tutorial.)


This thread was before the latest expansion.  I'm curious if I should turn the new expansion on/off, and whether or not I should use the normal+champion role in my first game?  The other posts about champion balance all seem to be between players who are already familiar with the game.  I learn pretty quick, I'm just curious the adding champion will make the game too easy/hard.

I'm using Kahuna's setup, with Hearteater's changes, except I also have Botnet and Spirecraft Easy turned on.  I'm not really going to use them, as I'm sure it'll make things too easy, I just want to see what exactly they entail.

I just don't want AI champions to come annihilate me before I can figure out what to do with mine.  But at the same time, I'd like to play around with them as long as they don't dramatically change the game's balance if I get one and then don't do much with it.


I guess my questions really boil down to:

What exactly is the AI's response to having a champion?
Does a champion count as a full player (increasing AI strength by .85)?
Does the Ancient Shadows really add anything else besides champions?

[Faulty Logic]

What exactly is the AI's response to having a champion?

Increases wave and cross-planet attack sizes by one fourth (not 100% certain) what another homeworld would.

And adds enemy champion frigates to both AI homeworlds. The number is proportional to Nebulae completed/ AIP.

Does a champion count as a full player (increasing AI strength by .85)?

No, I think it increases strength by 25% of another homeworld.

Does the Ancient Shadows really add anything else besides champions?

There are some new ship types (not really important), new map types (Clusters), and new AI types (which would be absolutely brutal to use in your first game).

I would recommend waiting on all the expansions until you have a couple 7/7 (or harder) victories.

[Eternaly_Lost]

Unless you planning on playing Fallen Spire (a completely different way to play the game) expansions are a good idea to delay to get used to things.

Fallen Spire however plays very differently then the base game. Base game, you would take a few planets, likely no more then 10 or so. Fallen Spire, you will often end up taking 50 or more planets. The game play is very different and I personally perfer Fallen Spire over the base game, but each to their own.

[Ragnarok]

I would advice to not play with with Fallen Spire and not with Ancient Shadows.

[Hearteater]

The biggest issue with Ancient Shadows will be the selection of Brutal Guard Posts on AI Homeworlds.  At your difficulty level there should be only one so you won't get the problems that 2-3 brutal picks can cause, but they can still be pretty daunting to a first timer.  This means you'd wouldn't have the option of a champion, but honestly I'd skip having a champion in your first game.