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/AIWar1201F.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 1.201E:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.013 are attached at the bottom)
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-The "Pause All" button now includes self-building ships, since they now draw down resources same as docks and other queue-based ships do.
-The game now allows 1024x600 as a minimum resolution (the netbook resolution), although it is still not recommended as a resolution and the lobby has some issues with that size. But at least it opens the possibility of playability with netbooks.
-The incoming waves count now shows the number of units, rather than the number of waves.
-The AI is now even more aggressive against command stations, and will do a better job of clearing out outlying structures when it has a small force, versus smashing through all the player planets when it has a large force. This all applies only to difficulty 5 and up.
-The AI now does a much better job of dealing with player force fields, knowing when to avoid them and when to strike them with a concerted force.
-On difficulty 5 and up, the AI is now much better about destroying player irreplaceable structures: advanced factories, captive human settlements, etc.
-The rows of background starfield images are now offset at random so that the end effect is a lot less gridlike.
-Force fields that are cloaked no longer create a force field effect.
-Previously, if a planet was not controlled by the player or the AI, but it had been scouted, and there were no enemy ships present, then it act like scout data was not present for enemies. Now it says "None" for enemy ships, as it should.
-The audio tab of the settings window has been completely revamped, now supporting separate volume levels for music, weapons, explosions, voice, interface, ship sounds, and alerts.
-The dropdowns in the lobby and elsewhere now use a gray background instead of a black background, to make it easier to see the text in them when they are expanded.
-Melee ships controlled by the AI no longer use group move when attacking.
-The AI is now limited in how many mines it will build at a planet, so that it will be effective with the mines but won't take up all its ship cap with mines alone.
-AI engineers will now act more intelligently when their target dies, stopping dead instead of keeping on coming into range of the player ships.
-Some tweaks have been made to the AI alert level to make it more accurate -- before, if the AI had lost a planet but still had a warp gate, AI troop accelerator, or special forces command post at the planet, it was not showing that the AI alert level was still high. This is fixed so that it now shows it properly in those cases.
-Ships that are still in the process of being built can no longer be reclaimed by parasites.
-When metal or crystal stores are extremely low (below 1,000), they will now flash at the top of the HUD to alert players who might not otherwise notice that their economy is failing.
-The AI is now better at dealing with player ships that are still under construction.
-Previously, cutlasses and vampires were having a hard time hitting moving targets. Fixed.
-Previously, cutlasses, vampires, and space tugs were not listening to player commands and instead were just doing their own target selection. Fixed.
-Previously, cutlasses and vampires would have a lot of trouble around force fields, and would just end up dying. Now they are immune to force fields, and fly and attack through them like infiltrators do.
-Fixed yet another cause for "indecisive" AI ships.
CHANGES FROM PAST PRERELEASES
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-Fixed a bug with savegames with self-building force fields not being proplerly loadable in the last version.
-The nuclear explosions were off in the last version because of some test code that accidentally got left in. Fixed.
-Force fields now rotatate and pulasate less.
-In recent prereleases, the starships were not fading in correctly while being built at the starship constructors. Fixed.
-The counter-shooter range now looks like it used to, rather than like the new force field.
-In recent prereleases, setting the Visibility option in the lobby was not working. Fixed.
-There was previously a bug that was causing the AI to act kind of stupidly around the players' home planet command stations, giving them much too much of a chance to live. Fixed.
