Prerelease 1.008J (Fix for FF Desync and Astro Train Loitering).

[x4000]

Here's the latest prerelease:  http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1008J.zip

That version is an upgrade from version 1.007, so you have to already have 1.007 (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 1.008H (I was an internal release):
(Cumulative release notes since 1.007 are attached at the bottom)

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-In recent releases (1.007 and on), maps that are 80 planets or larger were creating far  too many data centers and advanced research stations on each map, making the game much easier than it otherwise would be.  Fixed.

-When a munitions booster's object goes out of range, dies, or switches planets, the munitions booster now reacts to this more quickly and removes the link.

-Ships that are unable to hurt shield bearers will no longer auto-attack them as targets.  This makes shield bearers less of a targeting distraction in battles.

-Previously, the AI would just stop dead and not know what to do if the only enemy ships on a planet were fully cloaked.  Now the AI will ignore them as if they were not even there, instead of waiting around for them to decloak.

-Since version 1.006, the Astro Trains were sometimes stopping permanently at train stations.  Now they might stop for a little while, but they will quickly resume travel like they used to before some of the waypoint shifts.

-When ships controlled by the human team are only partially-cloaked, they now no longer show the cloaking graphic under them.  This makes it clear when ships are at least visible enough to be shot, versus being fully cloaked and unshootable (before the difference between fully cloaked and partially cloaked for your own team's ships was imperceptible -- now the difference between partially-cloaked and decloaked is imperceptible, but when it is a ship you control there is no gameplay difference between these two states, anyway).

-Engineers now only clear mines when there is nothing else for them to do inside their search range.

-A total count has been added to the new Control Group icon tooltips.

-Mines are now immune to blade-based ships (vampire and cutlass), which will prevent those ships from attacking mines (and dying) when the mines are visible.

-There was previously a desync that could be caused in multiplayer if one player was looking at a force field when new ships were added or the force field went down, and other players were not.  Fixed.

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That desync was a pretty nasty one, it was really rare and something that only seemed to crop up in certain situations when the human players were attacking force fields (but not always).  I've been looking for that since it first happened on Friday, and that's been a real bear to track down.  But I finally found it, and then once I saw what it was, I checked elsewhere to see if I could find it with any other mechanics that are similar.  That was the only one.  This desync has existed since the green borders appeared around ships under force fields (1.007, I think).  It affects multiplayer only (as do all desyncs), and is still super rare even then.  I'm planning on releasing 1.008 tomorrow, Monday, in order to get this fix out to everyone asap, however.

[Quitch]

Fortress range circle (when placing) doesn't centre on the fortress.

[x4000]

Fortress range circle (when placing) doesn't centre on the fortress.

Thanks!  I'll take a look.

[Quitch]

Game tells me I am missing a metal harvester, but I can't see where (attached)

Also had some wierdness in one sector where exoshields were no longer attached to their harvesters. Possibly related to me using +10 a lot at this point to amass home planet crushing armies. Their homes are so far back, and I have no advanced factories anywhere near, that this is proving quite tricky.

EDIT: Some ships are coming through a wormhole without an order two. I have two docks whove I've given a V order to on a wormhole, but CTRL wasn't held. I even ordered every military ship on the planet to do a V move to the same wormhole to ensure all orders had been cleared, yet ships are still coming through the wormhole in free-roam mode.

EDIT2: The, uh, wormhole defence.... hmmm 650 ships (mainly Mk II through 4 + all starships up to Zinith) went through a wormhole to the enemy homeworld after two hours of preparing the fleet. None survived longer than twenty seconds, that's how many core and Mk IV ships he'd put round the hole. I don't think this game is winnable at this point.

[darke]

Top/right the yellow planet under a red tech IV: R6/7.

[Quitch]

D'oh! I totally forgot I'd expended there. So stoopid

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Also had some wierdness in one sector where exoshields were no longer attached to their harvesters. Possibly related to me using +10 a lot at this point to amass home planet crushing armies. Their homes are so far back, and I have no advanced factories anywhere near, that this is proving quite tricky.

Can you upload the save file so I can see?  I'm not sure precisely what it happening, based on your description.

EDIT: Some ships are coming through a wormhole without an order two. I have two docks whove I've given a V order to on a wormhole, but CTRL wasn't held. I even ordered every military ship on the planet to do a V move to the same wormhole to ensure all orders had been cleared, yet ships are still coming through the wormhole in free-roam mode.

Oh, I see what's happening here -- this is because setting the gather point on the dock is not clearing the wormhole path.  If you select the docks, then go to the galaxy view and hold Shift, I bet you'll see the old line still light up.  Added to my list for the next prerelease -- good catch!

EDIT2: The, uh, wormhole defence.... hmmm 650 ships (mainly Mk II through 4 + all starships up to Zinith) went through a wormhole to the enemy homeworld after two hours of preparing the fleet. None survived longer than twenty seconds, that's how many core and Mk IV ships he'd put round the hole. I don't think this game is winnable at this point.

Yikes -- again, I'd love to see the save just to see what is happening.  If you pull up a big fleet on a planet next to the homeworld, or take the planet next to the homeworld for your own, they'll reinforce big time there.  I'll check the core reinforcement limiter and make sure that isn't too high, though -- just occurred to me that that might be off, but I'm not sure.  I'm going to make a new icon for the systems on the galaxy map that the AI is "likely to reinforce" based on your position and actions, etc.  I think that will help players avoid tipping off the AI too soon, and making the endgame unwinnable, which is what I think happened here.  While you were camped out near them, they were similarly preparing, but they wouldn't have been so likely to do so if you had been a bit further back.

However, you might still be able to salvage it -- if you build up a bigger force further back, you might be able to bust through.  That will probably go even better if you send a Mark III mobile force field generator (or even two) through right at the start.  Then your guys bust into their planet completely protected and ready to rock.  You could also send through some lightning missiles first (I'd guess 5-8 would be needed here), and that could really knock out a lot of their immediate defenses.

So, there are options even now, but it's definitely an uphill battle and it might not really happen if your resource levels are too low.  You definitely had a hard scenario there, but these wormhole reinforcements have really made it even moreso.  Those technologist AI types are really intended to be the ultimate difficulty for whatever level you play them on, so that's part of it.  I think they were a little bit too easy before, anyway, so I'm not sorry about the difficulty being higher here.  Main thing is that I need to make it clearer where the AI might reinforce, so that players can manage that and not create an uphill battle by accident.

[Quitch]

Ah, well I had been reinforcing two sectors back, but then I changed it so my ships sat in the sector next to his home world.

I didn't even know about the existence of mobile shield generators, that is going to change a lot

At this point though it will simply take too much effort to rebuild all of that, so I'm going to start over, this time against some 8s

Can you upload the save file so I can see?  I'm not sure precisely what it happening, based on your description.

Unfortunately I didn't keep it, all I can say is I went into a sector and found exoshields next to harvesters but with no protective shield animation. In one case the harvester was gone but the exoshield was still there.

I think I may have placed them while at +10 speed

[x4000]

Ah, well I had been reinforcing two sectors back, but then I changed it so my ships sat in the sector next to his home world.

Ah, gotcha.

I didn't even know about the existence of mobile shield generators, that is going to change a lot

Yep, those are real handy.

At this point though it will simply take too much effort to rebuild all of that, so I'm going to start over, this time against some 8s

No worries, I don't expect everyone to finish every murderously-hard scenario they happen to set up.

Can you upload the save file so I can see?  I'm not sure precisely what it happening, based on your description.

Unfortunately I didn't keep it, all I can say is I went into a sector and found exoshields next to harvesters but with no protective shield animation. In one case the harvester was gone but the exoshield was still there.

I think I may have placed them while at +10 speed

I see.  Well, at +10 speed it doesn't make any difference compared to regular speed, that wouldn't have caused it.  I was just able to duplicate this -- when harvesters die, their exoshield is also supposed to die, but that's not happening.  So what happened here is most likely that some of them died and then were rebuilt, and the exoshields from the first wave remained.  Added to my list to fix...

[x4000]

New version with the AI Reinforcement indicators, plus some other tweaks and fixes from here and elsewhere:  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,159.new.html#new