Is there an archive of old versions of AI War?

[keith.lamothe]

Yea, 473k I doubt we've hit.



Yet.

[Coppermantis]

Oh. I didn't notice that he said that 5.0-6.0 was 65k. Maybe it's closer then.

[Volatar]

Yeah, Ancient Shadows has been a much less... impactful expansion than say LotS. The patch notes for that period of time are really, really long.

[doctorfrog]

I do kind of miss some of the old tracks and the velour forcefields...



(I also miss having a minimap)

[Faulty Logic]

Isn't all the music still in there? (assuming by "tracks" you mean music)

Wow, that looks weird. Still, most of the stuff is recognizeable.

Apparently "Murdoch" has always been on the altplanetnames list.

[keith.lamothe]

Yeah, Ancient Shadows has been a much less... impactful expansion than say LotS. The patch notes for that period of time are really, really long.

The expansions themselves are generally less impactful on the overall game than the other changes that happen between the major version numbers.  I wouldn't be surprised if more's changed between 5.0 and 6.0 than changed between 4.0 and 5.0.  Though the switch from the AI using turrets to using guardians was pretty huge, as was the changing of the generic guard posts and core guard posts to the varied forms in today, though I don't recall whether those were in the 4.0-5.0 stretch or the end of the 3.0-4.0 one.

And of course there was changing the shield mechanic into the armor mechanic.

[x4000]

To some extent I would say our goal with the game was to be less revolutionary this time around, since things were more solid in general.  I feel like that's what happened with 3.0 that made it so successful -- it was by no means as revolutionary as 2.0, but it was by far preferred by folks because it refined so many things while also extending a lot of concepts that had already been toyed with some in the 2.0 era (leading to golems, more capturables, more AI dangerous structures, etc).  For AS, I think the scope of the champions is hard to understate, though, in terms of how that can change the feel of the game.  It's just that aside from those, most everything else is a refinement or extension of existing concepts.

I'd have to say that TZR was my favorite expansion for a long time, but now I think that AS has surpassed that, for the above reasons, personally.

[Volatar]

I'd have to say that TZR was my favorite expansion for a long time, but now I think that AS has surpassed that, for the above reasons, personally.

My favorite is still probably LotS. AS is great but it doesn't have that epic...feel that LotS does.

[orzelek]

(I also miss having a minimap)

It will be always missed greatly by those who remember 

[Volatar]

(I also miss having a minimap)

It will be always missed greatly by those who remember 

Except me. I never used that thing.

I am firm believer in the power of strategic zoom. I wish more games had it. Supreme Commander was first. AI War and SoaSE have it, as do several of the mediocre 4X games. That's about it though.

[Draco18s]

Except me. I never used that thing.

I am firm believer in the power of strategic zoom. I wish more games had it. Supreme Commander was first. AI War and SoaSE have it, as do several of the mediocre 4X games. That's about it though.

Agreed.

[eRe4s3r]

(I also miss having a minimap)

It will be always missed greatly by those who remember 

Just for the record, I miss it too, simply because after some revisions and suggestions the mini map was an absolutely superior tool to quickly find enemy ships and my resource harvesters and the wormhole that was hostile or incoming (which today is a problem..)

And the reason strategic zoom is no replacement is that when you build stuff you are zoomed in, so you miss 99% of the things happening around you.

And while I am at remembering old glory, the pre Unity GUI was simply superior in every way (sorry ,p) in terms of style and feel. Well, except of course in performance.. there it was terrible.

[Coppermantis]

It looks so different but also so similar. Interesting.

I didn't start playing until early 5.0, I think. Maybe late 4.0. So I never experienced these major changes.

[LaughingThesaurus]

Yeah I started playing like... probably right after the last winter sale? I got that coupon, bought the alien bundle because hey, it's 66% off and the game looks interesting in many ways, so that's where part of my interest came from. There are really old blog posts from before AI Progress was a thing. That sparked my curiosity like a lightning bolt erm... shocks things?

[x4000]

AI Progress was always a thing -- the AI has been refined some, bu never substantially overhauled.