The Latest prerelease is now out:
http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1201G.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 1.201F:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.013 are attached at the bottom)
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-Astro Trains are now immune to force fields, because otherwise they have a tendency to get stuck against them.
-The ship caps of infiltrators and laser gatlings have both been reduced to bring them back into more normal balance.
-Players are now able to build 20 mark II scouts instead of 10, and 30 mark III scouts instead of 10.
-Mark IV scouts are now immune to being insta-killed, which makes them able to function when counterspies are present.
-There is no longer a restriction on screen size enforced at startup.
-Players can now build twice as many of all of the various turrets.
-Holding the A key now either shows the energy display (if player net energy is positive), or hides the energy display (if player net energy is negative), for all ships that draw 500 or more energy.
-The four zoom buttons by the minimap have been removed, since they added clutter but no significant functionality.
-The galaxy map button has been redone and moved to near the minimap.
-The Selected Units and Give buttons have been moved to the right of the bottom buttons, and the bottom buttons have been slid to the left in general. The colored strip behind those buttons has been removed.
-The Attacked Command Stations button has been removed, as it was redundant with the threat meter at the top of the screen.
-Two new quick-buttons have been added at the bottom of the screen: reactors, and low power. The reactors lists all of the reactors controlled by the player, and their status. The low power button lists all of the ships that are in low-power mode (except for constructors, reactors, and manufactories, which are managed through the other buttons).
CHANGES FROM PAST PRERELEASES
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-Waves are back to being 3x normal, rather than 8x. This is for performance reasons, partly, but also because the smarter AI is now much more deadly with fewer ships. The game is simply too hard with too many of these waves.
-Harvester ExoShields now only draw -2 metal and crystal, rather than -3.
-When loading a multiplayer game, it no longer shows warnings of low energy everywhere.
-Previously, it was not factoring in the efficiency reductions when determining if a reactor could be turned off. Fixed.
-Previously, self-building reactors could not be turned off even in energy-poor situations. Fixed.
-The selected ships button popup was not working in the past version. Fixed.
