Prerelease 1.202R (Autoattack+, AI home planet location+, nuked planets+)

[x4000]

The latest prerelease is available at http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1202R.zip

That version is an upgrade from version 1.201, so you have to already have 1.201 (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 1.202Q:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.201 are attached at the bottom)

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-Previously, whether a shot hit a ship or a forcefield was precalculated when the shot was fired and then never reevaluated.  Now it checks to see which it should hit when the  shot actually impacts.

-Previously, when ships were just being created for a player, they would use double their actual needed energy.  Fixed.

-Previously, if parasites/leeches did more than 100% damage to a ship, they could reclaim it with more than 50% starting health.  Fixed.

-When multiple waves of AI ships are coming at the same time, those waves are now ordered by planet name.

-Docks/Constructors that are unable to finish building a ship because of lack of resources or lack of energy now flash red.

-A gray box is now shown behind the incoming waves warning to make it easier to read against bright planet backgrounds.

-The scores and incoming waves box now have a thin border around them to make their contrast better against dark backgrounds.

-The description text for metal/crystal harvesters was still referring to them losing efficiency as more are built, which is no longer correct.  Fixed.

-Previously, if a planet had been destroyed (nuked), it was not allowed to have a command station build on it.  Now command stations can be built on these planets as normal, which is necessary for capturing any structures that might remain on those planets.

-Planets that have been nuked no longer give or receive supply.  So other structures beyond the command station can no longer be built on these planets, engineers do not function on them, etc.

-Advanced Factories no longer require Supply to function (this makes them work better with nuked planets, and other similar situations).

-Non-home command stations now require supply to function.  Since command stations create their own supply, normally this has absolutely no effect.  But on destroyed/nuked planets, this means that a non-home command station is unable to provide its own supply, and is thus able to be built, but unable to build anything else.

-There is now a better error message for when sound files are missing.

-The placement logic for AI home planets is now much better, so that they are rarely going to be at all near one another in new games.  This gives them much more of a chance to regroup and defeat the human players after one of the AI players is destroyed.

CHANGES FROM PRIOR PRERELEASES
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-If a player lost any ship on a home planet that belonged to them, then they would lose all of their other home planet command stations (when they had more than one).  Fixed.


NEW ART - Philippe Chabot
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More Updated Ship Icons
Updated Control Group Icons For Planetary Summary

[x4000]

In related news, I am pretty much definitely going to give this another day.  The official 1.301 release should be on Friday for sure (unless something really drastic happens), but basically I just want to give this release a bit more time to settle to make sure there are no big bugs or anything.  Tomorrow I'll basically still be working on other stuff on the critical and confirmed bugfixes list, avoiding anything noncritical that is large enough that it might introduce significant bugs of its own.  1.301 is going to be another really notable release, when you look back at all the changes since 1.201 -- visually and otherwise!

[Kjara]

Hmm, requiring supply for command centers basically means you can't skip a planet anymore and build past it(well plus killing any form of extended raiding that we currently have).  I would argue for a supply distance of 2 for command centers perhaps?  That way you can't just abandon existing ones if you are doing extended raids(which ideally will still kill the raids since you would have to tie up way too force wise to keep the supply chain alive), while still making it possible to skip past a unbeatable planet early.

Edit: I Guess with the nuke changes, that is an option, but a mighty expensive one.  Most people would prob just restart before having to use a nuke or 2 at the very start of a game though.  It just feels like it gets rid of one aspect of the game that was cool, being not only able, but almost forced to bypass worlds that were too tough to beat now.

[eRe4s3r]

Confusion about the changes confused me too

[liq3]

Uhhh, what are you guys on about? Supply is given by player controlled planets (i.e. non-nuked planets with a command station on them). Dunno what you're on about with these "supply chains".

PS. Also cutlasses are still useless . No regen buff + useless against turrets.

PPS. Oh, I like the new homeworld alg. The enemy homeworlds were both 6 away from my homeworld (like every other planet...heh), but the catch is they is they were NINE hops away from each other. Like wow.

[eRe4s3r]

This Non-home command stations now require supply to function.

Unless i fail at english understanding (twice in one day?) this means that only the home command station produces supply and you can not build command stations beyond 1 hop unless you link them aka - directly adjacent. This is obviously a massive change, because command stations produced supply, they didn't require supply to build function.

Maybe i just don't understand the system  

But to explain - if this is a long string of worlds

# --- O --- O --- O --- O

# = Home Command Station
O = MK1 Command Station
x = out of supply/destroyed
--- = Wormhole Connection
E = Enemy

Then destroying this one
# --- x --- O --- O --- O
will do this
# --- x --- x --- x --- x
or
# --- x --- O --- O --- O (If they'd supply each other) but even so that would be a massive change because you would now require to actually clean the entire string of the worlds (except the last planet) to research raid them

| Its probably just a misunderstanding ;p

Before you could have a situation like this

# --- E --- E --- O --- E

without having to clear the enemies out of the way (notice that you could research raid all enemy planets in this setup) - ok i admit, i am confused  

eDIT: Just to clarify, i am already at work i can't test this ;p
Thanks Liq3 for testing it ^^

[liq3]

Kay, did a quick test. As soon as you start building a home station on a planet (including ones without supply), the planet gains supply (and I'd assume any planets within 1 hop). Home stations provide their own supply. :]

[eRe4s3r]

Thanks!   So it was just confusion.. sorry about making you read all that heh!

[liq3]

Thanks!   So it was just confusion.. sorry about making you read all that heh!

Oh, dw, I didn't read it. Only read the first line or 2.

[Haagenti]

I merely assumed that X wouldn't spring this on us with a single line in a patch,.

I still wonder what the line means, though...

[quickstix]

If I read right, I think it's to do with now being able to build command stations on planets that have been nuked to take stuff like Advanced Factories and Research Stations. You can still build the command station with a colony ship, but as a nuked planet will not give supply anymore, that command station will not function ie. not be able to build stuff.

[x4000]

If I read right, I think it's to do with now being able to build command stations on planets that have been nuked to take stuff like Advanced Factories and Research Stations. You can still build the command station with a colony ship, but as a nuked planet will not give supply anymore, that command station will not function ie. not be able to build stuff.

Bingo!  Sorry I wasn't more clear in the text above, I'll adjust the release notes.  But this is exactly it -- the colony ships are not affected at all, it just affects the ability of non-home command stations to build stuff on planets that were nuked.  Sorry for the confusion, that was my bad!

[x4000]

PS. Also cutlasses are still useless . No regen buff + useless against turrets.

They will remain useless against turrets, the regen I just didn't get to, but it is on my list for S, today.

PPS. Oh, I like the new homeworld alg. The enemy homeworlds were both 6 away from my homeworld (like every other planet...heh), but the catch is they is they were NINE hops away from each other. Like wow.

It was actually a surprisingly simple change, once I thought of it.  I'm really please with how it turned out, too, and it should avoid ever doing anything really stupid, like putting the second homeworld right next t player planets (unless there is no option, such as with 8 players in a 10 planet map), etc.

[darke]

It was actually a surprisingly simple change, once I thought of it.  I'm really please with how it turned out, too, and it should avoid ever doing anything really stupid, like putting the second homeworld right next t player planets (unless there is no option, such as with 8 players in a 10 planet map), etc.

Now that's an idea: I wonder how hard it would be to win an AI10/8-planet-start/10-planet-map game? *ponder*

[x4000]

It was actually a surprisingly simple change, once I thought of it.  I'm really please with how it turned out, too, and it should avoid ever doing anything really stupid, like putting the second homeworld right next t player planets (unless there is no option, such as with 8 players in a 10 planet map), etc.

Now that's an idea: I wonder how hard it would be to win an AI10/8-planet-start/10-planet-map game? *ponder*

You would be the one to try something like that, haha.