Prerelease 1.007F (planet notes and better performance in huge games).

[x4000]

Here's the latest prerelease:  http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1007F.zip

That version is an upgrade from version 1.006, so you have to already have 1.006 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 1.007D (E was a non-public update):
(Cumulative release notes since 1.006 are attached at the bottom)

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-There is now a "Mobile Military" option in the Find list, which allows players to search for all mobile military ships of a certain type (e.g., bombers or fighters) regardless of ship level.  This has the same functionality as the normal find, insofar as allowing the ships to be routed, etc.

-There is now a notes button in the galaxy map which allows players to set some text at each planet.  Planets with notes show their notes in the Intel Summary, and they also show a little yellow/orange flashing star next to the planet in the galaxy map.

-There were previously some issues with the very large and active games (80,000+ ships) causing some lag issues on the host after a time.  This was because the AI message queue was getting clogged up, causing a degradation in performance.  This would also cause the AI to get really unresponsive in these situations.  It is now fixed so that even with these vast numbers of ships, the performance is fine and the AI stays as responsive as usual.

-In games with more than 60,000 ships, the AI will now swap out pairs of its lower-level ships on non-contested planets for singles of higher-level ships.  This keeps the unit counts to around 60,000 when at all possible, without giving the AI any advantage (the trades are roughly equivalent, if anything a little bit unfavorable to the AI).  This, in turn, keeps the game huge but not overwhelming for lower-end CPUs with lots of players or really long games in large galaxies.

-There used to be a slight delay in clearing the tachyon beam and munitions booster objects when the host craft switched planets.  This could sometimes cause some long and incorrect lines across the new planet's map, usually for under a second or two.  Fixed.

-Ships in attack-move or free-roaming defender mode will no longer "dance" between their focal point and their current attack target as their attack targets die and thus change. The ships will now only go to their focal point when they search for a target and don't find one, rather than going there as soon as they are finished with their current target.

[Zulgaines]

The tool tip of number of planets still says you can choose between 40-120. I tried a 10 planet game for kicks and was swarmed and killed by the AI within 15 seconds. :x

AI was only set to like 4 too, since I was just testing it.

[x4000]

The tool tip of number of planets still says you can choose between 40-120. I tried a 10 planet game for kicks and was swarmed and killed by the AI within 15 seconds. :x

AI was only set to like 4 too, since I was just testing it.

Thanks -- in the next prerelease, I've corrected this to read "Default is 80 planets, but you can choose anywhere from 10 to 120.  Maps smaller than 80 plants tend to be easier as well as shorter, except for the really tiny maps (under 40), which can be much more fast-paced especially right at the start."

The AI has comparably fewer ships on the 10 planet maps, so I think that was probably mostly a fluke of the particular map or a factor of the AI type you were playing against (playing against Special Forces Captains, for instance, mean you'll be swarmed very quickly, even though the swarms are weak -- if you aren't prepared for them, that can be fatal).  I don't think there's an imbalance inherent in the fact of it being 10 maps, I think it's just the AI types (or the fact that some maps are harder than others; that might be amplified on the smaller maps, I'm not sure).  If it seems to be a running thing, though, please do let me know!