Official Release 3.016 (Bugfixes)

[x4000]

The latest beta is available via the Updates window in version 3.000 or greater of the game.  Just open the game and you can quickly download the prerelease through the updates tab.  If you don't yet have 3.000 or greater, you can download 3.000 here.  This prerelease version is compatible with any vendor's version of the game -- Steam, Impulse, whatever.

Note:  If you have bug reports related to this release, please log them in the bug reports subforum with one bug per topic.  It makes things infinitely easier for us.  Thanks!

What's new since 3.013:
(Cumulative release notes since 3.000 are attached at the bottom)

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

-Previously, there were some glitches with the health of very high-health ships such as PermaMines, which was causing them to be targetable when they should not have been, and autoattacked in FRD mode, etc.  Fixed.

-Human players must now have at least 100 military ships on an AI planet for the resistance fighters to join in.

-Previously, using shift+right click to deselect groups of units from the unit type selection box was not working properly.  Fixed.

-Space tugs were not showing up correctly in the build queue.  Fixed.

-Marauders and resistance fighers were starting way too far out in the middle of nowhere.  Fixed so that they start around 10x closer now.

-The stream buffer size on game music is now twice as large, which should help avoid buffer underruns.

-When hovering over a marauder with your units selected, it was previously not giving targeting info.  Fixed.

-Vampires, Cutlasses, and Wasps now have 2,000 more shields each.

-Fixed an issue with engineer beams flashing green right at the start when they are assigned to a unit they cannot actually assist at the moment.

-Previously, engineers were charging players for repairing space docks that they were assisting, even if they were not doing actual repairs.  Fixed.

-Fixed a bug that could lead to indecisive AI units if they were simultaneously trying to escape and attack.

-All of the weapons have been removed from the cloaker starships, as this would cause them to blow their own cover and was fairly pointless for them to have, anyway.

-Cleanup Drones are now able to dismantle enemy mines (including permamines) on allied planets.

-Cleanup Drones now work half as quickly as before. With all the other recent shifts, they were otherwise becoming too powerful when used alone or in pairs.

-Mobile Repair Stations now have infinite engine health, since there is no way for their engine health to be regained.

-Previously, there was a bug where steam achievements would reactivate on ever game load.  Fixed.

-The logic for when harvesters are auto-created by command stations has been improved so that if any non-mine military units of the enemy are present, it will not auto-create them.

-The text in the tutorials window was being cut off in recent versions.  Fixed.

-Command Stations will now only autobuild at planets that have supply.

-Engineers, cleanup drones, remains rebuilders, mobile builders, mobile repair stations, and space tugs are all now able to pass through enemy force fields.  This prevents them from ever getting stuck while trying to do their work.

-The wording for when ships do not have supply has been improved so as to be more clear when supply is blocked for some reason other than distance from allied planets.

-Previously, if the low-energy text was being shown over a ship, then no other hover text (such as knowledge counts on science labs) was shown.  Fixed so that it now shows both.

-Fixed a collision issue that could previously cause allied ships to dance around instead of stopping in rare cases.

-Remains are now omitted from the ship icon guide (F1), as they have no useful traits to show and took up too much vertical space on hover.

-Units that are hit by translocation shots are no longer translocated if they are already held by a tractor beam.

Updated in 3.015:

- Fixed the cold storage lag issue so that it kicks in more quickly as it did prior to 3.014.

Updated in 3.016:

- Fixed a crash bug in 3.015 (thanks HellishFiend for reporting).

- Reverted the music buffer size to a the prior smaller amount so that it will hopefully avoid any skipping on player machines that have a busy or slower hard drive.

Manual Installation

If you would like a simple zip file of the updated post-3.0 files, here it is:  http://arcengames.com/share/AIWar3016.zip

[HellishFiend]

I think you've raised the bar for yourself yet again by releasing an update within 5 minutes of someone inquiring about it. 

[x4000]

Lucky chance you asked 5 minutes in advance of it!

[Vaos]

-Cleanup Drones are now able to dismantle enemy mines (including permamines) on allied planets.

-Cleanup Drones are now able to dismantle enemy mines (including permamines) on allied planets.

-Cleanup Drones are now able to dismantle enemy mines (including permamines) on allied planets.

I can't express my joy toward that change. This was so much a pain on snake/vines map types.

As always, keep on the good job! 

[carlosjuero]

So far everything seems to be smooth w/ this Pre-release. Started a new game and haven't seen the resistance fighters show up w/ just scouts entering systems - of course, I just happened to get Counter Spy as one of my AI's I guess - all of my scouts have been insta-killed by the damn counter spy turret in both bordering systems (Scout Starships should be handy in this situation, they are immune to Insta-Kill aren't they?)

On a side note: Currently spawned Resistance fighters in a save of mine did not get the fix (since the fix affects when/where they spawn) so I have worlds with AI streaming after them still. Once I clean up the affected worlds I will make sure that future worlds have the fix applied.

[x4000]

So far everything seems to be smooth w/ this Pre-release. Started a new game and haven't seen the resistance fighters show up w/ just scouts entering systems - of course, I just happened to get Counter Spy as one of my AI's I guess - all of my scouts have been insta-killed by the damn counter spy turret in both bordering systems (Scout Starships should be handy in this situation, they are immune to Insta-Kill aren't they?)/quote]

Yup, they are immune to insta-kill.  Glad it's going well!

On a side note: Currently spawned Resistance fighters in a save of mine did not get the fix (since the fix affects when/where they spawn) so I have worlds with AI streaming after them still. Once I clean up the affected worlds I will make sure that future worlds have the fix applied.

Yup, it would not affect existing placement, only new -- exactly right.


Glad things are looking well here!

[HellishFiend]

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I just installed windows 7, or the new patch... but performance in my large co-op game seems to have reverted back to pre-cold storage levels.

[Echo35]

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I just installed windows 7, or the new patch... but performance in my large co-op game seems to have reverted back to pre-cold storage levels.

It hasn't been randomly spazzing out and lagging/frame dropping for me since the patch.

[x4000]

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I just installed windows 7, or the new patch... but performance in my large co-op game seems to have reverted back to pre-cold storage levels.

As in, it is now worse?

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I just installed windows 7, or the new patch... but performance in my large co-op game seems to have reverted back to pre-cold storage levels.

It hasn't been randomly spazzing out and lagging/frame dropping for me since the patch.

As in, it is now better?

[Velox]

-Cleanup Drones are now able to dismantle enemy mines (including permamines) on allied planets.

-Cleanup Drones are now able to dismantle enemy mines (including permamines) on allied planets.

-Cleanup Drones are now able to dismantle enemy mines (including permamines) on allied planets.

I can't express my joy toward that change. This was so much a pain on snake/vines map types.

As always, keep on the good job! 

     Seriously.  So awesome!  I'd like to think that this came about because you saw the savegame for the permamine issue and took pity on me...

     Time for me to buy another copy, I think.  =)

[x4000]

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I just installed windows 7, or the new patch... but performance in my large co-op game seems to have reverted back to pre-cold storage levels.

Okay, I figured it out.  Performance was not actually worse, per se... but it was vastly slower in getting to the better performance.  In other words, cold storage could take up to an hour or more to kick in depending on your game setup, because it was waiting until all of the collision re-checks were completed before putting any ships in cold storage.  In the next version, 3.015, which will be an official update, that is fixed so that it puts stuff in cold storage on the same schedule as it used to, and then worries with the collision re-checks later.  Best of both worlds, should be!

[HellishFiend]

I'm not sure if it's the fact that I just installed windows 7, or the new patch... but performance in my large co-op game seems to have reverted back to pre-cold storage levels.

Okay, I figured it out.  Performance was not actually worse, per se... but it was vastly slower in getting to the better performance.  In other words, cold storage could take up to an hour or more to kick in depending on your game setup, because it was waiting until all of the collision re-checks were completed before putting any ships in cold storage.  In the next version, 3.015, which will be an official update, that is fixed so that it puts stuff in cold storage on the same schedule as it used to, and then worries with the collision re-checks later.  Best of both worlds, should be!

Cool! That had to have been what it was, and we only played for a little upwards of an hour last night, so it could be that we just never got over that hump. I'll keep you updated.

[x4000]

Sweet!  That must have been it, then, as you say.  I am in the process of releasing 3.015 (an official version) that is the same as 3.014 except with that one extra fix.  So, we'll see what happens in that, in my testing it has all of the various benefits.  But at any rate, it's time that there was an official release with all of these many bugfixes, so I'm pushing that on out...

[RCIX]

-Cleanup Drones are now able to dismantle enemy mines (including permamines) on allied planets.

-Cleanup Drones are now able to dismantle enemy mines (including permamines) on allied planets.

-Cleanup Drones are now able to dismantle enemy mines (including permamines) on allied planets.

I can't express my joy toward that change. This was so much a pain on snake/vines map types.

As always, keep on the good job! 

Took long enough

I've been saying (or thinking at least) ai war needs a mine sweeper and that should do awesome!

[x4000]

I'd had a mine sweeper feature on the list for a long, long time myself, but I had not ever completely decided on how it would work.  And I'd never planned on letting it work with permamines.  But I like how it turned out!