Prerelease 1.999M (Bugfixes, Performance+, Steamworks, Last Of New Art For 2.0)

[x4000]

The latest prerelease is available at http://www.arcengames.com/share/AIWar1999M.zip

That version is an upgrade from version 1.301, so you have to already have 1.301 (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 1999L:
(Cumulative release notes since 1.301 are attached at the bottom)

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

-The confirmation message for gifting ships between players has been updated to reflect why ships can sometimes not be gifted.

-Fixed a super rare crash bug when changing music tracks.

-A new way of calculating an "adjusted score" for purposes of the high scoreboards has now been arrived at.  This formula takes into account the difficulty level of both AIs, whether the player has a positive handicap relative to the AIs, the AI modifiers, and all the other relevant start-game factors, multiplied times the Score Over Time.  This allows for consolidated, meaningful online leaderboards.

-AI War now integrates with Steamworks (optionally, for an upcoming public release for people who have Steamworks).  As part of this, the following features have been added:
     -AI War now logs achievements to Steam as well as locally.
     -There is now a high scoreboard on Steam, that logs the best adjusted score of each player, and another that logs the raw scores.
     -The GDI windows of AI War, which normally block DirectX-based overlays like Steam, now are moved out of the way when the Steam client is activated, allowing for a full and normal use of the Steam client at any point in the game.

-Mobile military ships no longer emit damage smoke even if they are large (this helps performance).

-Several performance improvements have been made to the collision detection algorithm, which really improves performance when a large group of ships are moving to near a large group of existing ships.

-Engineer target acquisition has been made more efficient.

-Raptors no longer have a minimum range.

-Shots now accelerate to match their target in these sorts of cases.  The benefit of ships moving fast is meant to be useful in other ways, not for dodging bullets.  This adjustment should help with raptors and autocannons and etherjets dodging bullets.

CHANGES FROM PRIOR VERSIONS
--------------

-Fixed a bug wherein a planet had to have supply for a command station to build in the last few prereleases.

-There were a few extra debug messages in the game at a few places.  Fixed.

NEW ART - Philippe Chabot
--------------
Updated Infiltrator I, II, III, IV
Updated Missile Silo
Updated Starship Constructor
Updated Orbital Command Station - Warp Jammer
Updated Bomber I, II, III, IV, Core
Updated Cruiser I, II, III, IV, Core
Updated Figher I, II, III, IV

[x4000]

So, this is the last of the new art for version 2.0 -- Phil has moved on to working on the expansion.  Also note that the Steamworks integration won't be available to the general public until AI War officially comes out on Steam in a couple of weeks, so don't bother trying to get that working with you existing Steam install, because the needed components are in the main distro of AI War, anyway.

[dumpsterKEEPER]

FYI, the link in the original post still points to L and not M. You can get there by manually tweaking the URL, but it might be less confusing if it was pointed correctly

[x4000]

Whoops, fixed.

[Echo35]

Also note that the Steamworks integration won't be available to the general public until AI War officially comes out on Steam in a couple of weeks, so don't bother trying to get that working with you existing Steam install, because the needed components are in the main distro of AI War, anyway.

Are any of the Steam features working yet? Because the Steam windows ingame still open underneath the AI War ones, and stuff still pops up inside the map window in the lobby.

[x4000]

Also note that the Steamworks integration won't be available to the general public until AI War officially comes out on Steam in a couple of weeks, so don't bother trying to get that working with you existing Steam install, because the needed components are in the main distro of AI War, anyway.

Are any of the Steam features working yet? Because the Steam windows ingame still open underneath the AI War ones, and stuff still pops up inside the map window in the lobby.

No, those all require the Steam version of the game, which isn't currently available.  Basically, in order to handle that stuff it has to have my wrapper DLL for actually hooking into Steam.  None of that is distributable without the game being officially out on Steam, for a lot of technical reasons and probably some policy reasons on their end.  Soon, though!  Less than two weeks, should be.

[Kjara]

Question on projectiles moving at the speed of the unit, does that mean projectiles aimed at teleporting units instantly arrive at their targets?

[x4000]

Question on projectiles moving at the speed of the unit, does that mean projectiles aimed at teleporting units instantly arrive at their targets?

Nope, those guys still have a very nice dodging ability.  But for everyone else, the rate of fire is adjusted.

[Oewyn]

btw, this version breaks all previous saves... at least it did for us.

We loaded a game, and suddenly had 12000 ships threatening.  Oh well, it was a fun attempt at defense, but alas, was hopeless against the hordes of enemy ships.

[x4000]

Can you post the save? I have loaded five or six other saves (from various players originally, that I use to test) and have not seen anything like this at all.  That's a pretty concerning bug, though.

[Echo35]

btw, this version breaks all previous saves... at least it did for us.

We loaded a game, and suddenly had 12000 ships threatening.  Oh well, it was a fun attempt at defense, but alas, was hopeless against the hordes of enemy ships.

I was in the middle of playing a game, quit and patched, and jumped right back in, so it works for me. COurse my decision to use a Nuke ended the game rather quickly, but no game breaking from the software end

[Fiskbit]

btw, this version breaks all previous saves... at least it did for us.

We loaded a game, and suddenly had 12000 ships threatening.  Oh well, it was a fun attempt at defense, but alas, was hopeless against the hordes of enemy ships.

I'd love to see this save if only to try defending against 12,000 ships. Sounds fantastic.

[Oewyn]

I will try and get a hold of the save, I wasn't the host, so i don't have the actual one made at version L that we loaded after we patched to M.

[Oewyn]

Here is the save.

[Kalzarius]

Got a number of bug reports and whatnot from this week and last, but it's far too late to post them right now.  We should have them up in about 15 hours.