The Latest prerelease is now out:
http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1201D.zipThat 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.
Why is this now 1.201 instead of 1.014? Well, this release is just so huge that I felt it needed to be differentiated with a more major version number shift. People are going to remember this as the release where the economy became flow-based and got more robust, where the AI tactics became way more intelligent in many ways, and where a ton of interface and graphical improvements came into play, amongst other rebalancing and over a dozen new ship types. It's a whole new game from 1.013 in some respects when it comes to the advanced strategy, so this is something I felt was important to make really clear with the numbering.
What's new since 1.201C:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.013 are attached at the bottom)
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-There are now multiple starfield styles that players can choose from in the Graphics tab of the settings window.
-Force field blending is now vastly better, so they do not get more opaque as multiple of them are stacked on top of one another. This makes shield bearers no longer obstruct the view.
-Bombers now have a better bonus against fighters, because they were killing fighters far too slowly before.
-New hotkey: Shift+L now selects a third of the currently selected units.
-When the debug output (F3) is on, each in-game chat message being displayed now shows an addendum for how many more seconds it is supposed to display, as well as if the "time to display" has been set yet.
-Time stamps are now included at the end of the in-game chat messages.
-Self-building science labs no longer show the knowledge income or exhausted messages above themselves, since that was misleading (they are not actually doing anything until they finish construction).
-Harvester Exo-Shields now use -3 metal and crystal per second, rather than -1, to be more consistent with the new economy.
-The second tutorial, covering the economy, has been completely revamped so that it is now up to date with the new economy.
-Right-clicking the messages button now marks all of the messages as seen (and thus not visible except on hover of that button).
-The way the lobby renders is now completely different. Before it was using a method that displayed wrong in some other non-windows environments or in virtual machines, but now it should be compatible everywhere.
CHANGES FROM PAST PRERELEASES
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-Being in low-power mode no longer affects the shields of ships. This is more intuitive, and makes the low-power mode more useful as a hold-fire mode.
-The low-power energy use of ships is now more accurately 10%, there were rounding issues before.
NEW ART - Philippe Chabot
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Planet - Pluto
Planet - Rings
NEW ART - eRe4s3r
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Background Starfield - Colored
