Prerelease 1.201E (Econ fixes, last planet gfx updates, new force field gfx)

[x4000]

Important:  If you previously installed the 1.201D prerelease, I made a small error with that.  The release notes file was called 1.201, rather than 1.201D.  The presence of that file will prevent the auto-updater from installing the official version of 1.201 for you.  If you care, then you'll need to delete the existing 1.201.txt file in the ReleaseNotes file in your folder.  If you just want to install the 1.201 update from the zip file I always provide in addition to the automatic updater, then don't worry about it.

The Latest prerelease is now out: http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1201E.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.

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 1.201D:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.013 are attached at the bottom)

-------------------

-When an self-building ship is damaged, its progress towards being built is also now damaged.  This makes it so that self-building ships that are damaged cost more, and also so that when they finally are finished they will always do so with 100% health.  This also has various internal calculation benefits.

-When there is not enough energy to build a ship from a queue, construction will now continue right up until the end, where it will wait.

-Instead of showing "ERROR" when ship strengths/weaknesses are not yet compiled, it now says "NOT YET COMPILED" to hopefully cut down on the number of queries about this when players are looking at beta versions of the game.

CHANGES FROM PAST PRERELEASES
--------------

-Timestamps are now to the left of the chat messages.

-The colored starfield is now the default.

-Numerous issues with the placement mode ships doing their self-building calculations have been fixed.  Turrets were basically free in most cases in recent releases, but that's now corrected.

-The boost rates of the engineers was not working at all correctly when they were helping to build placed ships or accelerate queues.  Fixed.

-Thanks to some better rounding, the starfields now scroll a bit more gracefully.

-The build rates of the docks is now scaled down for the smaller resource of metal or crystal. The higher requirement builds at the rate you would expect, but the smaller resource builds at a rate that will make it finish at the same time that the larger requirement finishes.  In the past, the smaller resource would build at its full rate, finish early, and then drop to zero, which caused a lot more fluctuation in the outflow rates of the economy.

-A timing issue with the construction events was causing the outflows to flip up and down every second.  Fixed.

-There is no longer a ten-second averaging of metal/crystal rates. There is also no longer a resouce-related purpose to pressing Alt, because there is no "max" rate anymore with the new way that docks work.

-Previously, if the metal or crystal rate was negative then ships would keep building and send it even more negative.  Fixed.  When the rate is negative or zero the ships will now stop building and thus avoid going negative, although if there are too many negative producers such as reactors or exo-shields that consume resources, it is possible that they will continue to send it negative.

-It is no longer possible to have negative metal or crystal rates.

NEW ART - Philippe Chabot
--------------
Planet - TethysRings (this is the last existing planet to be updated -- now on to the HUD!)
Force Fields

[tional]

Some very nice fixes in here, especially the crystal/metal negative things.  That made it a real nightmare to recover from the AI wiping out your economy.

[Revenantus]

Excellent work on the force fields! Since it's not homogenous, could it slowly rotate? That would look much more interesting than the static image.

Additionally, I'm not sure if this is intended, but forcefields overlap without blending - the top level forcefields occlude the fields below them from view.

EDIT: I'd also suggest that they pulse at about half of their current rate.

[Echo35]

Aww, but free turrets were fun! 

[Fiskbit]

I'm getting an onscreen error at the top left for some reason. The game continues to run. I transcribed this, so I may have made a typo, but the error reads:

ERROR! System.OverflowException: Value was either too large or too small for an Int32.
  at System.Number.ParseInt32(String s, NumberStyles style, NumberFormatInfo info)
  at System.Convert.ToInt32(String value)
  at AIWar.ForegroundObject.ReadStateString(String StateString) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\Framework\ForegroundObject.cs:line 8671
  at AIWar.GameForm.ClientReceivingData(String Message) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\NetworkHandling.cs:line 459

Related to this version's changes, I'd assume.

[eRe4s3r]

Mhh i am not getting such an error, but i do have to admit that the forcefields don't blend at all anymore? They are just stacked as usual (although much less obnoxiously)

Aside that, haven't yet played any game with this update, just a quick overview... Planets look very cool now! ;p

[Fiskbit]

Any chance alt could be brought back? I think it's still as useful as it used to be, since resource consumption fluctuates. Knowing what the maximum is could be helpful.

Loving things currently. I do kind of wish repairs were as smooth as construction and regen, though; they increase health very choppily. Not a big deal, but kind of inconsistent; definitely nothing to worry about for now if it's a difficult change.

Will get some more play time in tonight to look for bugs, but I think it's getting rather solid!

[Fiskbit]

The new forcefield graphic is neat, but defensive things that have some kind of range such as tachyon drones use this same graphic, which is kind of strange. I vote that those non-forcefield units go back to using either the old graphic or some new graphic (perhaps something as simple as just a plain one-color filled circle). Also, any thought on having the energy display when low on energy be some sort of hotkey or toggle? It's useful, but if I know I'm low on energy, I don't want to have to look at these numbers because they're rather large relative to everything else, particularly when zoomed way out, and can obstruct view of the ship.


Edit: Have starship constructors stopped showing the in-progress starship? Is this because it was confusing players? If so, I'm sure there are other ways to make it clear why a starship hasn't come out of its constructor yet due to energy constraints, such as a flashing building. If it's gone for good, then perhaps lower the radius of these constructors, since they're massive considering their graphic, presumably to display in-progress ships.

I like that idea: if a ship can't be built due to insufficient energy, then it might be helpful if that constructor would flash.


Edit 2: When you lose, the bright white 'explosion' is now a fade to black that abruptly returns to normal from complete blackness. Please bring back the old one.

[Haagenti]

Having started a new game on the same map, I think I can still run an empire off 4 planets. It is definitely not as easy as before though: my resources are much more limited now and my knowledge is a bit more constrained (bought the II Orbitals, and I think I'll buy the III Orbitals later on).

It may also help that I'm using a very "green" energy-conservation strategy (provisionally dubbed the Kyoto strategy)
- I'm not using turrets: I'm not defending the wormhole entrances into my two border worlds, but I'm defending the wormhole exits on my border worlds that lead to my home world, and this is done by a forcefield and a fleet, most of which shuttles between the two border worlds as attacks come in.
- I'm not building I fighters and I parasites anymore, and once I research III bombers, my I bombers will go out as well. If I get to the point where I have to use mercenaries, I will stop using I cruisers.
- I scrap most of the I ships that I capture. I mothball the II, III, IV and C ships I capture and store them on the homeworld (for emergency defense or for special uses). Once I have plenty of captures, the IIs are scrapped as well.
- I use only two research stations, not all of my engineers and not all of my forcefields
- I currently have a I, II and III reactor on each world, and am thinking about adding another II and two more Is
- Once I find an Advanced Factory, I may use it as a fifth world, adding 25% to my energy

All of the above hurts aplenty, but it keeps the AI fairly quiet. I'm not sure if it is abusive yet. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.

[x4000]

Some very nice fixes in here, especially the crystal/metal negative things.  That made it a real nightmare to recover from the AI wiping out your economy.

Glad you like it! Thank Rev for that one, he convinced me. 

[x4000]

Excellent work on the force fields! Since it's not homogenous, could it slowly rotate? That would look much more interesting than the static image.

Well, I played around with that, but it looked a bit too... I'm not sure.  I'll have to look at it again.

Additionally, I'm not sure if this is intended, but forcefields overlap without blending - the top level forcefields occlude the fields below them from view.

Yes, this is 100% by design.  I spent probably upwards of 6-7 hours this week trying to make this happen, actually.  This prevents the force fields from causing a "white out" when too many of them overlap at once.

EDIT: I'd also suggest that they pulse at about half of their current rate.

Now that I'm fresh today, I'll look at it again.

[x4000]

I'm getting an onscreen error at the top left for some reason. The game continues to run. I transcribed this, so I may have made a typo, but the error reads:

ERROR! System.OverflowException: Value was either too large or too small for an Int32.
  at System.Number.ParseInt32(String s, NumberStyles style, NumberFormatInfo info)
  at System.Convert.ToInt32(String value)
  at AIWar.ForegroundObject.ReadStateString(String StateString) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\Framework\ForegroundObject.cs:line 8671
  at AIWar.GameForm.ClientReceivingData(String Message) in C:\vcprojs\AIWar\GameFormParts\NetworkHandling.cs:line 459

Related to this version's changes, I'd assume.

Savegame, please.  I can't duplicate and that line number is wrong (not parsing any ints on that line), so that's very curious.

EDIT:  Actually, I found it in the code, although I still could not duplicate.  Will be fixed in the next version.

[x4000]

Mhh i am not getting such an error, but i do have to admit that the forcefields don't blend at all anymore? They are just stacked as usual (although much less obnoxiously)

They are blended, just not in the way you are thinking -- it's discarding more opaque pixels.

Aside that, haven't yet played any game with this update, just a quick overview... Planets look very cool now! ;p

Glad you like the planets!  It's a real relief for Phil and me to finally be moving to something else.

[x4000]

The problem with the loading of a few savegames is fixed here:  http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1201E2.zip

Will also be in the F release to come out later, of course.

[x4000]

Any chance alt could be brought back? I think it's still as useful as it used to be, since resource consumption fluctuates. Knowing what the maximum is could be helpful.

Sigh.  All right.

Loving things currently. I do kind of wish repairs were as smooth as construction and regen, though; they increase health very choppily. Not a big deal, but kind of inconsistent; definitely nothing to worry about for now if it's a difficult change.

There are a lot more repairs going on than construction.  Part of the reason for this is the better CPU efficiency of doing it this way.  And also:  it's not a simple change in general.

Will get some more play time in tonight to look for bugs, but I think it's getting rather solid!

Well, that's good!  Still not planning to release today either way, given the many changes in this, and the "critical" list still being what it is, but that's great.