Prerelease 1.014R (Network latency buffer hotkeys)

[x4000]

The Latest prerelease is now out: http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1014R.zip

That version is an upgrade from version 1.013, so you have to already have 1.013 (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 1.014Q:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.013 are attached at the bottom)

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-It is now possible to adjust the network latency for high-bad-packet or high-lag networks.  Simply use Ctrl plus +/- to adjust this up and down.  A network setting of +4 is double the normal value.  Basically, when the network setting is increased it reduces the load on the network and gives the network more time to make each transmission, but it also causes more "command lag," which is the amount of time between your command to a ship and the time it takes that ship to actually take action.  Each increment of the network setting adds around 45ms of command lag -- anything up to +7 should still be reasonably comfortable (under 500ms command lag), according to studies done in the past by other game developers.

[Fiskbit]

This helped tremendously. I'm on the west coast, and playing with liq3 (Australia), PhonSiE (east coast), and Revenantus (UK) was smooth at +8. When the AI launched a lot of ships at us, I had to raise to something much less tolerable (+15) to get it smooth, but this was something along the lines of 5000 AI ships appearing all at once on a single planet. I noticed that placing multiple ships at a time with this high latency was very, very difficult, making me resort to the 5-at-a-time despite wanting my structures more orderly than that method provides. This is something I'd really love to be fixed, as it made building stuff take more time and attention than it should have.

On the whole, it was really great to play the game fullspeed. It was fine at +8, though any improvements to efficiency you can come up with that'll allow that to go even lower would be awesome. At the same time, though, this was a game that spanned the planet, so I'm pretty happy with how it performed. I'll maybe be a little less happy when I need +8 to play more local games, though. I'll let you know how that goes when I get around to testing it.

The AI improvements, by the way, are absolutely fantastic. The game was frantic and exciting the entire time; there was never a dull moment. Resources likely need tweaking, however, because it's currently way too easy to amass large amounts of them (I'm at the crystal cap after a couple hours and only 3 planets).

Anyway, that's it for now. Definitely a fun and exciting experience.

[x4000]

Okay, here's a new version:  http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,898.msg5487.html#msg5487

Fiskbit, I'm really glad to hear that this worked so much better for you guys!  Given the unpredictability of network lag conditions, I suppose this is really a must-have.  You had talked to me a long time ago -- during alpha, I think -- about adding a latency mode like what Starcraft has, but I never really saw a clear way to do that until recently.  So I'm glad that was a hit and is enabling you guys to play intercontinental multiplayer; there really isn't anything quite so fun as a good co-op game, being able to work together and come to each other's rescue when things turn dire is my favorite part, and I'm glad you all were already having that sort of experience from the sounds of it.

The new version will hopefully help with the placement of ships at higher latency, although the delay between clicking and actually having the ship display will be the same (that's the command lag that comes from having a long stretch between network communications, and unfortunately that's unavoidable).

Glad you guys were really liking the AI improvements, too -- the next release also addresses some of the cross-planet attack concerns that Haagenti in particular had.  Should make those more interesting to go along with the rest.

As for the economy balance, I feel like the real problem is more not having enough to spend resources on once you hit your ship caps.  Sometimes there is simply a lag between when you hit your ship cap and when you are ready to actually make an offensive (and thus lose some ships), so that can be problematic.  I could up the ship cap, but that would just delay when this same problem would arise and it would also potentially cause other balance issues (such as letting players just rely on higher-level ships, etc).

So, as you will see in the next release above, I decided to add a new Mercenary Space Dock with it's own set of uncapped Mercenary ships.  Those ships are identical to the mark II bombers, fighters, and cruisers, except for the lack of a cap and the fact that they cost 10x as much.  So when you have anything else to do with your resources, the other choices are almost always better, but when you find yourself at your ship cap and with an excess of resources, this is a very sensible use for those resources since it lets you expand your fleet to a potentially-very-large degree.  I think that some other "big ticket" items like this in the future might also help to keep the economy balanced, because overall I very much like how it is balanced now -- it's just that when the ship caps are hit for any length of time, the extra resources tend to skyrocket.