Love AI War and/or Tidalis? We could really use your help...

[x4000]

Cool!  I'd not heard of that, actually.  Thanks very much for the tip, I'll see if I can get in touch.  And welcome to the forums!

[Fishbreath]

I was looking for a space game of some sort back in the spring, and I ended up springing for Gratuitous Space Battles over AI War. GSB has been fun, but for the past few months and for the rest of the next one I'm on a computer with old enough graphics hardware so that some of the things GSB does makes it choke badly.

So I looked into AI War again, and this time grabbed the demo, played through the tutorials, and figured it would probably be worth a buy. I snagged the game and the expansions, started up my first campaign, and now, seven hours of gameplay later, I have to wonder what on earth I've gotten myself into. I don't think I've ever come across a game that has impressed me so quickly; an hour or so in, when I got a sense of the scale of the map and the task ahead of me I had to stop just to give myself some time to think about what to do next (and I've had to do that again, too). Now I'm well into the midgame, and my initial impressions are only reinforced: this is one of the best strategy games I've ever played. I guess I could say it this way: it's like a (literal) puzzle, except there isn't a picture of the finished product on the top of the box, and if I put more than a few pieces in the wrong place, they all explode.

I've turned into a fan already, and I've got a couple of friends back home who are into the same sort of games. Next time I see them I'm going to see if I can't turn them into buyers too. Most of them are big fans of good co-op games, which this seems to be. I'll also be keeping an eye on Arcen's future releases, and whether or not I spring for them I wish you guys the best of luck.

[x4000]

Thanks so much for your support and the kind words!  It really means a lot.

[keith.lamothe]

Yes, thanks very much for the support

We're continuing to improve AI War, and are also exploring some cool new angles.  Once you've played a few games you might want to try the more story-campaign style experience with the Fallen Spire minor faction in Light of the Spire.  It's not done yet, but will be pretty soon, and the players seem to already enjoy getting slaughtered playing it

[cubanresourceful]

Just want to post a few of my thoughts, whether they are worth much or not.

First off, I've been playing AI War since version 2.0 came out on Steam (albeit on and off, blame my engineering classes for that). I read the description and downloaded the demo. Played the first tutorial and bought it. Then played the second.

I loved the vastness of the game. What I loved more was the fact that it kept my attention span. One reason why I don't consider myself a gamer, and I do not really buy much games, (unless they are on sale), is because most games cannot keep my attention. The vastness, variability, and my liking for space themed games and strategy games help retain my attention. That and well I cannot afford to not pay attention since I would most probably lose. Horribly.

It was since then, that now I am the proud owner of all the expansions of the game, including the beta release. It warmed my heart seeing that CoN was solely for contributions to Child's Play. I've also been a great supporter of being honest with your customers because maybe it won't net you the greatest profit compared to screwing over your customers, but at least your fanbase is true and the backlash minimal.

Another two reasons why I support not AI War, but Arcen Games as a company in general is their DRM policy and their openness with customers. A comment on the first being, if I am paying for a game, why am I more restricted than those who did not pay for the same game? That's flawed logic there which I can assume is a lack of taking Discrete Structures in college (God help those who have too though!). To comment on the latter, I love being honest about my problems to other people, sometimes it's the best way to earn honesty and loyalty, and can be a surefire way to garner opinions and advice that may be good or bad, but help put things in a better perspective than the one you may currently have. It also helps to have an insight into the company as a whole, and if Chris is so open about his finances, family, development, etc., then why can we not be open with him? Maybe that's why Arcen Games gets quite a bit of feedback, if you're honest with people, then they'll be honest with you. It's this honesty that brings me here time to time to comment on a few things, ask questions, and provide feedback to topics like these not because it stems from me wanting to be heard, but from Arcen wanting to listen.

Also dedication to your product means a lot to a customer, and if the amount of news on the website, the constant updates on the company and developers, constant updates to the games themselves, product roadmaps, and Chris and Keith post counts equal a staggering 34% of all the posts on the forums (that's 21,412 posts out of 62,937 guys) then I don't know what dedication is. Bottom line guys, support a company that does everything they can to support you and, above all, keep you happy. Which is why I am a proud supporter of Arcen Games, with AI War being my favorite game since I've bought it until now (actually, being completely honest, it's tied with the Gran Turismo series, I love cars and racing them )

The best of luck to you guys, keep on releasing expansions and I keep on buying 'em. I know I am not the only one, and I will do all that I can to spread the word, so to speak.


Edit: Fixed some funny grammatical errors.

[keith.lamothe]

Many thanks for the support and the kind words

And yea, it was largely the remarkable aspects of Arcen that you mentioned that made me so interested in helping out.  Chris is the guy who took the plunge to make all this happen, I'm just here to help push that boulder to the top of the hill

[Winter Born]

I think a link to the AI Wikapedia section somewhere on the Arcen website would be a positive.

[Karlious]

Just registered so I could post this

I've been playing AI War with friends off and on for the past year and its always been fun. I was just browsing the forums to see the changes from our last big play session and saw this thread .

I know I'm very late to the party here, but I just wanted to say after reading this I bought Tidalis for myself and a few friends haven't had a change to actually play it yet though!

I just wanted to say I wish you guys all the best, you've created the only fun multilayer sci-fi strategy game that our group can get together and play and not get bored in 2 hours(I'm looking at you Sins of a Solar empire!)

Can't wait for the next AI:War Xpac!

[Annatar]

Hi folks (especially Keith, long time no see!), new posted but been an AI War player since Zenith Remnant.

I've always held AI War in high regard, and was a bit sad to read of Arcen's financial problems. I can only imagine how frustrating it is for you, since you put out two superb products and unfortunately, there aren't any Jedis to mind control people into buying.

For my part, before I even read this I've been describing and recommending AI War on Stardock's game forums. There was actually a thread started in the last couple of days asking for great space-themed strategy game recommendations, with a couple of us heartily endorsing AI War. There was a thread a couple weeks before that asking about AI War specifically, as well. Hopefully those got some exposure and generated some sales.

On a less wide-scale side of things, I was already planning on buying CoN and Spire expansions (had a break from the game and just got back into it more recently). I will most likely buy Tidalis as well, and already have plans to gift the entire AI War package after Spire's release.

I sincerely hope with everyone spreading the word that Arcen's income will improve. Among the many Indy developers around these days, it's still rare to see your amount of support, dedication, and (frankly) talent. After all, there's still AI War 2 to make!

[keith.lamothe]

Hi folks (especially Keith, long time no see!)

Indeed, now you see what's been keeping me so busy.  I do keep an eye on goings-on back there, but not enough time to split

Our recent promotional sale with the official release of CoN and 4.0 was very encouraging financially though we're still waiting on the bulk of the checks coming in there (but it's just a matter of time).  That should bring us up from "Link wandering around with one half-heart left and that stupid beeping noise" back up to 1.5-2 hearts or so   And we're pretty confident that the LotS official release will go well too.  And holidays are usually a pretty good time, particularly contrasted with the summer months.

[Annatar]

That's great news I don't think you ever mentioned that you joined up with Arcen! I was quite surprised when I loaded up 4.0 and got lost in listening to the awesome music and saw your name scroll by on the main menu. You definitely picked a good place to join

[x4000]

We've really been enjoying having him here, too -- he's been a real godsend for me.

Thanks so much for your kind words and your support, Annatar, and glad to meet you!

[Annatar]

Have you considered instead of doing a full-fledged new trailer, just to narrate (or have someone else narrate) a play-through of 4.0 AI War? Sort of like what you did with the Co-op walkthrough last year for Youtube, only with some more Pew Pew action Get it up on Gametrailers where it can get a lot of exposure. This would be a lot faster than making an actual trailer, and if you pick a good 10-minute chunk of a game where lots of exciting things happen (I'm sure the community could dig up a save that works if you don't have one), it would probably hook people more since they'd see the actual game being played Picking a chunk of a game with some capturables (Ion Cannons, Advanced Research Stations - stuff with immediate awesome results), and onlining a Golem (people love massive super powerful ships) should do the trick!

[x4000]

It's certainly possible, and might be great as a player-led sort of project.  But, that sort of thing is really outside the scope of my time/abilities at the moment.  And gametrailers doesn't seem to really take submissions last I saw, which was frustrating.  But, we've talked for a while about how player-created trailers might be an awesome thing since variety and different styles might tap different audiences, for example.

[Annatar]

Hm, you've got a point that it might be a better suited community project. I know that during the beta test of Elemental (SD's latest), they would end up with walkthrough vids and such on Gametrailers that weren't anywhere else, so they must've gotten in touch with them somehow. I'll try to ask around there and see if one of them can tell me something. If it's a fairly pain-free process, it'd definitely give the game some nice exposure to have an official vid on the front page, since user vids don't show up on that main list.