Prerelease 1.006E now available.

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WARNING:  This prerelease includes some rather significant changes to the AI Progress, which have not yet been fully tested.  We'd very much appreciate any feedback you can give us, but this change is considered relatively volatile compared to most of our prereleases.  There's a chance the AI will do something really off, such as building 10x too many ships or sending waves that are 10x too large, or that your AI Progress will get messed up in your savegame.  We've specifically tested for this already and are reasonably confident this won't happen, but with something of this magnitude in a prerelease, it bears noting.  The best course, if you use this prerelease, is to back up your savegames before you start with the new version, just in case!

Here's the latest prerelease:  http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1006E.zip

That version is an upgrade from version 1.005, so you have to already have 1.005 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 1.006D:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.005 are attached at the bottom)

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-The scale of the AI Progress meter has now been multiplied by 10.  This makes it possible for the game to now support smaller increases and decreases in the scale.

-The AI Progress now goes up by 10x as much as before when an AI player loses their home planet.

-the AI Progress now goes up by 2 when core command posts are destroyed (this is on the new scale, so it is relatively a very small amount).  This, plus the prior change noted above, are intended to make the very end of the game more intense.

-The AI Progress now goes up by 1 when special forces command posts and Astro Train Stations are destroyed (this is a very tiny amount on the new scale).  This is intended to make a mild disincentive to destroying key routing points for the AI, even though most of the time it is not expected that this will be a deterrent.

-There was previously a bug wherein ships in Free-Roaming Defender mode who were on a planet with hostile ships would just freeze when given a wormhole command instead of going through the wormhole.  Fixed.

-There is now a sound effect when a new incoming enemy wave is added.

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bump

[Quitch]

Bugs in planet name display:

Seed 1761718751

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Thanks for reporting that, Quitch -- apparently it only happens in the lobby, and only when on a widescreen monitor.  I was able to duplicate that once I forced my game window to be wider, and that is now fixed for the next version (to be out shortly).

[Quitch]

Teleport a group of teleport raiders (a very misleading name I might add) to the edge of a planet and this happens



Only the top right ones are static, the others are jumping back and forth.

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I'll check that out with the teleport raiders and see what I can do.

For the name, the reason they are called that is that they are just like regular raider ships for the most part, except with teleportation.  When I later add transport ships that can carry stuff like these between planets, I think you'll find them easier to use on offense.  But for now, you can always build space docks on enemy planets and then use these guys to great effect.  When the enemy sends in these teleport raiders to one of your planets, you'll also see some of why they have the name they do.

[Quitch]

Couple of minor ones

1. Clicking the Play/Pause button of a collector twice in quick succession plays two sounds but only clicks the button once.

2. Mine layers in free-roam don't seem to act like engineers in free-roam, they don't cover the whole map.

3. If a control group gets split across sectors the key should take me to the  sector with the most ships, not the one with the three guys with no engines.

4. It would be good to be able to pull up target seek range.

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1. Clicking the Play/Pause button of a collector twice in quick succession plays two sounds but only clicks the button once.

It actually does click the button twice -- however, it says "turn on" twice in a row, or whatever, instead of saying "switch your state" twice in a row.  I did it this way to prevent people who accidentally double-click sometimes from having it switch many times, but I guess this can be more confusing.  I think I'll switch it.

2. Mine layers in free-roam don't seem to act like engineers in free-roam, they don't cover the whole map.

Oh, hmm, I'll have to check on that.

3. If a control group gets split across sectors the key should take me to the  sector with the most ships, not the one with the three guys with no engines.

This is by design.  When you have control groups split across planets, and you activate the control group (double press) it takes you to the next planet that has any ships from the control group on it.  If you then activate the control group again in a cross-planet fashion (triple press), it will take you to the next next planet, and so on.  That way you can cycle through all of your planets that have ships from a control group on them, versus always just going to the largest group or something like that.  I should probably add this to the Wiki...

[Quitch]

Just to provide context to 1, the reason for a fast click is when you have multiple manufacturies and you want to enable or disable them all, you often need to click twice to get this.

Just want to praise the game for a moment, since I often turn these threads into bug and suggestion posts . While, thus far my teleport raiders such a fat one () turning the difficulty up to 7 and enabling schizophrenic AIs has really changed the way I've had to play. In my previous game I was ignoring fighters as a waste of time, but in this game I've had to mass them just to leave my system as fast enemy ships closed in on my cruisers and bombers and laid waste. Instead of going straight for tech 2 ships I've bought a mine layer so as to better control entry to my system (only for the enemy to send fast moving autocannon pods).

We're approach the hour mark and I'm only just getting ready to setup bases outside my system having neutralised two of the three adjoining warp gates. This is much better

And now back to bugs, the abandoning move orders bug still seems to be present. Ships using attack move in one sector are ordered back to my adjoining sector, but those which were later engaged by enemies stop moving, fight, then never get back to moving again. CTRL shows they have no orders.

EDIT: Heh, and that thing in the wiki about destroying a command station, the defenders leaving their posts, killing you and then attacking your sectors? Yeah, I went and did that It ws part of a bold plan to capture a Mk II Ion Cannon which totally failed to account for the fact that all the ships in the sector were Mk IV. They wiped me out, came through my undefended point (the mines were being rebuilt owing to note above) and beat the snot out of me.

Awesome

Oh, and some kind of limit on how many times the alarm can sound per minute over your command station being attacked

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Just to provide context to 1, the reason for a fast click is when you have multiple manufacturies and you want to enable or disable them all, you often need to click twice to get this.

That makes sense.  I've made this change for the next version (coming momentarily).  The side effect is that when you select a bunch of manufactories, it toggles all of them back and forth between their states, rather than syncing them all up on whatever state.

Just want to praise the game for a moment, since I often turn these threads into bug and suggestion posts . While, thus far my teleport raiders such a fat one () turning the difficulty up to 7 and enabling schizophrenic AIs has really changed the way I've had to play. In my previous game I was ignoring fighters as a waste of time, but in this game I've had to mass them just to leave my system as fast enemy ships closed in on my cruisers and bombers and laid waste. Instead of going straight for tech 2 ships I've bought a mine layer so as to better control entry to my system (only for the enemy to send fast moving autocannon pods).

We're approach the hour mark and I'm only just getting ready to setup bases outside my system having neutralised two of the three adjoining warp gates. This is much better

Haha, awesome!  Yeah, the AI really comes into its own with all its tactics and such at 7 and up.  That's really the level for advanced players who have had time to get a hang of the game.  Glad you're liking it!

And now back to bugs, the abandoning move orders bug still seems to be present. Ships using attack move in one sector are ordered back to my adjoining sector, but those which were later engaged by enemies stop moving, fight, then never get back to moving again. CTRL shows they have no orders.

Okay, I've taken another stab at this one in the next version.  Will require more testing to verify if it is fixed, but hopefully it is.

EDIT: Heh, and that thing in the wiki about destroying a command station, the defenders leaving their posts, killing you and then attacking your sectors? Yeah, I went and did that It ws part of a bold plan to capture a Mk II Ion Cannon which totally failed to account for the fact that all the ships in the sector were Mk IV. They wiped me out, came through my undefended point (the mines were being rebuilt owing to note above) and beat the snot out of me.

Awesome

Haha, yeah -- that's a good way to get killed.   Also try nuking an enemy planet with 30+ Mark III starships.  Those guys will fricking scour you out of the galaxy if you aren't ready for them.

Oh, and some kind of limit on how many times the alarm can sound per minute over your command station being attacked

It rings every time it gets shot, like an explosion sound effect.  Figured that's the best way to let players know when stuff has slipped through to their command station, since they may not always have eyes right on it.  What sort of limit did you have in mind?  I can't think of a way to do this that would be assured of not causing a potentially deadly gap in auditory info given to the player...

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Ok, that new version is now out:  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,102.msg626.html#msg626

[Quitch]

That makes sense.  I've made this change for the next version (coming momentarily).  The side effect is that when you select a bunch of manufactories, it toggles all of them back and forth between their states, rather than syncing them all up on whatever state.

Not to be a pain -- he lied smoothly -- but the old behaviour would be better if it's an X or Y thing. I'd rather deal with having to click slow than figure out which ones are off and which are on so I can CTRL click them in turn.

It rings every time it gets shot, like an explosion sound effect.

Yeah, and it was being attacked by MK IV autos, so you can imagine the amount of noise it was making. A siren every ten to twenty seconds would be fine.

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Ha, ok.  Those changes in a very minor update, 1.006G:  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,102.msg630.html#msg630

Probably today's last update, I'm taking a bit of time to spend with the wife.  More to come tomorrow!