Warning 1: A huge chunk of the innards of the control architecture was rewritten for the prior version. It is entirely likely there may be bugs relating to this, although only one has been found (and already fixed) so far.Warning 2: There are some significant AI shifts in version 1.011A and up, which is likely to make it much harder given the same difficulty level. So if you are loading older savegames that were close, you might find yourself losing if you are not careful. Just fair warning!The Latest prerelease is now out:
http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1011F.zipThat version is an upgrade from version 1.010, so you have to already have 1.010 (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 1.010E:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.010 are attached at the bottom)
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-The "wait points" of AI players are now cleared when they are being shot at or are shooting at another target, which makes them more responsive and less sitting ducks.
-A number of new planet name syllables have been added, which will provide millions (or more) possible new planet names.
-Ion cannons are now able to hit ships under force fields. Transports will need to be used to sneak past ion cannons, not mobile force fields.
-All of the ships that are captured on planet ownership change are now immune to force fields, which means that they will stay immobile under enemy force fields. Same thing with all of the resource producers (including harvesters). This makes it possible to build metal/crystal harvesters under enemy force fields, but if they have ships there then you are likely to have those harvesters get killed pretty quickly.
-The scouts have all been renamed to Scout I, II, III, and IV instead of the older names that are no longer appropriate.
-The Anti-Armor ships now have a min hit percent chance of 90% (so if a ship is at all in range, they have a 90% chance of hitting it -- cruisers have an 80% chance of that).
Their range has also all been increased to 5000, which is lower than a cruiser but higher than most other ships. This makes them something of a secondary cruiser, which should make them a lot more popular in general.
-Eyebots are now immune to being insta-killed by ion cannons, etc. They are also now immune to snipers.
-Shield bearers now have small, weak force fields, which let them protect nearby allied ships but which doesn't let them push enemy ships around.
-The range of deflector drones has been increased 10x, making them the longest-ranged non-sniper ships in the game. They are still a weak ship, but this makes them useful in a lot more situations rather than just against masses of laser gatlings, etc.
-Tractor beams are no longer able to be sent out by cloaked ships. Any tractor beams that exist will remain if a ship then re-cloaks, but no new ones can be sent out except when the ship is at least partly visible.
-The way that the button rows along the bottom of the screen are handled has been revamped to allow for some more flexibility.
-The build buttons in a number of the menus are now drawn in two dimensions. This makes the lineages of turrets, force fields, starships and the like a lot more easy to read, and also paves the way for having vastly more lineages being introduced over time.
-Space Docks now show all of the Mark I through III ships on a single tab, with multiple rows, which makes it a lot easier to see where your upgrades have been applied without having to do a lot of clicking around.
-The tech buttons have been updated to match the new display of the build buttons.
-Raid and Leech Starships now have a small bonus against turrets and heavy defenses, rather than a moderate penalty. They now have a severe penalty against resource producers, constructors, and command stations.
-Missiles, like scouts and non-military ships, are now a lower-priority selection when drag-selecting. They won't be selected unless there are no unselected military ships being selected in the same action.
-The colored borders on ships (showing attack-move, group move, etc) no longer show for enemy ships.
-The AI will no longer launch cross-planet attacks from their home planets.
-Previously, the game would crash on start in systems without an active sound card driver installed. Fixed.
-When loading a saved game but waiting for other players to connect, previously the game would show zeroes for the income rates and energy balance (and thus also a warning of a low energy balance). Now the game omits the income rates, skips the warning, and shows "
" for the energy balance until the game is actually resumed.
-(Player and AI) ships that are chasing a teleporting ship will now break off the chase if the teleporting ship goes out of attack range, if there are any non-teleporting ships present that can be chased instead. This prevents ships from being sent on wild goose chases after teleporting ships.
-Teleporting ships are now the lowest priority for chasing when the ship doing the chasing does not have teleportation.
