Prerelease 1.999T (Fixes and balance tweaks)

[x4000]

The latest prerelease is available at http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1999T.zip

That version is an upgrade from version 1.301, so you have to already have 1.301 (or greater) installed. Just unzip it into your game folder (usually C:\Program Files\Arcen Games\AI War\ unless you specified something else). Please make sure that your unzip process keeps the folder structure from the zip file, rather than just unpacking all of the files into the base target directory.

What's new since 1999S:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.301 are attached at the bottom)

-------------------

-The Mark III and Core AI Force Fields are once again mobile.  The AI simply had too many interesting tactics to use with these to turn them off.

-Previously, enemy force fields were visible through the fog of war.  Fixed.

-The knowledge costs of tachyon beam emitters and stealth tachyon beam emitters have been halved.  Additionally, their tachyon beam ranges have been increased from 750 and 1000 to 4000 and 8000, respectively.

-Previously, AI waves coming from core/home planets were always a Mark IV/V mix.  Fixed.

-Previously, space tugs that were set in attack-move or free-roaming defender mode would dance around in a very unhelpful way while waiting at the repair station for the repair station to do its work.

CHANGES FROM PRIOR VERSIONS
--------------

-The Buy and Tech buttons for Bombers were vertically flipped in the past prereleases.  Fixed.

-Heavy defenses now have a collision priority of 10,000 (this includes forts).

-The Core Bomber graphic was incorrectly rotated/positioning in recent prereleases.

-In recent prereleases, the exo-force-fields were not showing their protection aura over their protected ships, even though they were properly protecting the ships.  Fixed.

-In recent prereleases, players were being shown as winning when they had in fact lost.

-In prior prereleases, it was possible for ships to "dance" out of the way of one another in a long line.  Fixed.

[x4000]

This is the version of the game that will initially be going on sale on Direct2Drive, incidentally.  It's a very solid version, though there are some noncritical bugs that we are still hunting down before we call this full-blown 2.0.

[RCIX]

Correct me if i'm wrong but shouldn't the "What's new since 1999R:" line read "What's new since 1999S:"?

[x4000]

Correct me if i'm wrong but shouldn't the "What's new since 1999R:" line read "What's new since 1999S:"?

You must have loaded it just before I fixed that.   It was still linking to the download for S instead of T at that point, too.

[Echo35]

-Previously, enemy force fields were visible through the fog of war.  Fixed.

Aww, but gathering intel without sending scouts was fun!

-The knowledge costs of tachyon beam emitters and stealth tachyon beam emitters have been halved.  Additionally, their tachyon beam ranges have been increased from 750 and 1000 to 4000 and 8000, respectively.

Yay! They aren't so completely useless now!

[x4000]

-The knowledge costs of tachyon beam emitters and stealth tachyon beam emitters have been halved.  Additionally, their tachyon beam ranges have been increased from 750 and 1000 to 4000 and 8000, respectively.

Yay! They aren't so completely useless now!

Yeah, that's the idea.  I never used those things, before.

[Volatar]

-The knowledge costs of tachyon beam emitters and stealth tachyon beam emitters have been halved.  Additionally, their tachyon beam ranges have been increased from 750 and 1000 to 4000 and 8000, respectively.

Yay! They aren't so completely useless now!

Yeah, that's the idea.  I never used those things, before.

Yeah, I think that this is a very good change. I may start using them myself also (when I have an AI that uses enough stealthed ships for them to be needed).

[x4000]

-The knowledge costs of tachyon beam emitters and stealth tachyon beam emitters have been halved.  Additionally, their tachyon beam ranges have been increased from 750 and 1000 to 4000 and 8000, respectively.

Yay! They aren't so completely useless now!

Yeah, that's the idea.  I never used those things, before.

Yeah, I think that this is a very good change. I may start using them myself also (when I have an AI that uses enough stealthed ships for them to be needed).

Yeah, it might make cloaked ships not quite so dastardly as they previously could be, too.

[RCIX]

-The knowledge costs of tachyon beam emitters and stealth tachyon beam emitters have been halved.  Additionally, their tachyon beam ranges have been increased from 750 and 1000 to 4000 and 8000, respectively.

Yay! They aren't so completely useless now!

Yeah, that's the idea.  I never used those things, before.

Yeah, I think that this is a very good change. I may start using them myself also (when I have an AI that uses enough stealthed ships for them to be needed).

Yeah, it might make cloaked ships not quite so dastardly as they previously could be, too.

Quoting just for fun....

[x4000]

-The knowledge costs of tachyon beam emitters and stealth tachyon beam emitters have been halved.  Additionally, their tachyon beam ranges have been increased from 750 and 1000 to 4000 and 8000, respectively.

Yay! They aren't so completely useless now!

Yeah, that's the idea.  I never used those things, before.

Yeah, I think that this is a very good change. I may start using them myself also (when I have an AI that uses enough stealthed ships for them to be needed).

Yeah, it might make cloaked ships not quite so dastardly as they previously could be, too.

Quoting just for fun....

Why would you do that?

[Volatar]

-The knowledge costs of tachyon beam emitters and stealth tachyon beam emitters have been halved.  Additionally, their tachyon beam ranges have been increased from 750 and 1000 to 4000 and 8000, respectively.

Yay! They aren't so completely useless now!

Yeah, that's the idea.  I never used those things, before.

Yeah, I think that this is a very good change. I may start using them myself also (when I have an AI that uses enough stealthed ships for them to be needed).

Yeah, it might make cloaked ships not quite so dastardly as they previously could be, too.

Quoting just for fun....

Why would you do that?

Ooooooo! a quote chain!

I'll tell you, I have been playing with simple ships in my games for a while, but my newest game I picked complex ships (I am thinking I might enjoy using munitions boosters now that they can filter into fleets effectively) and I have had AI raptors buzzing around my systems destroying my resources a good bit so far. I really think this change will make me very happy

[Echo35]

-The knowledge costs of tachyon beam emitters and stealth tachyon beam emitters have been halved.  Additionally, their tachyon beam ranges have been increased from 750 and 1000 to 4000 and 8000, respectively.

Yay! They aren't so completely useless now!

Yeah, that's the idea.  I never used those things, before.

Yeah, I think that this is a very good change. I may start using them myself also (when I have an AI that uses enough stealthed ships for them to be needed).

Yeah, it might make cloaked ships not quite so dastardly as they previously could be, too.

Quoting just for fun....

Why would you do that?

Ooooooo! a quote chain!

I'll tell you, I have been playing with simple ships in my games for a while, but my newest game I picked complex ships (I am thinking I might enjoy using munitions boosters now that they can filter into fleets effectively) and I have had AI raptors buzzing around my systems destroying my resources a good bit so far. I really think this change will make me very happy

Raptors are such a pain in the ass, mostly because of speed, though now that tachy turrets are reasonably affordable, that may change.

[x4000]

And now comes version V (U was an internal thing):  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,1802.msg11195.html#msg11195