Prerelease 3.039 (Bugfixes, Astro Train Nerfs, K-Free Rally Posts)

[x4000]

The latest beta is available via the Updates window in version 3.000 or greater of the game.  Just open the game and you can quickly download the prerelease through the updates tab.  If you don't yet have 3.000 or greater, you can download 3.000 here.  This prerelease version is compatible with any vendor's version of the game -- Steam, Impulse, whatever.

Note:  If you have bug reports related to this release, please log them in the bug reports subforum with one bug per topic.  It makes things infinitely easier for us.  Thanks!

Looking for a Patch That Can Be Manually-Installed?
Because of the time involved in creating multiple versions of each patch, we only create manually-installable patches for official versions of the game, not each beta prerelease.  But, if you're running version 3.022 of the game or higher, you can easily crete your own manually-installable beta patch!  If you don't yet have 3.022, but do have 3.000 or greater, you can download a simple zip containing the files of 3.022 here.  Simply unpack those on top of your existing files in your AI War folder, and voila -- you're on 3.022.

To create your own manual beta patch, you'll want to go here.  This folder contains all of the beta updates.  You just need whatever the most recent one is at the time (probably the same version number as this post).  Download that zip file, which if you try to open will say it's corrupt -- that's okay, it's not really a zip file.  Next download the updated Director.Xml file from that folder.  Finally create a new zip file on your computer, and put both the director and the fake-zip-file inside it.  Call your outer zip file something that starts with Beta and ends with an extension of .zip.  Beta.zip will work just fine, or you can name it after the specific version number if you want to hang onto it.  And that's it!  Now you have your very own manually-installable package of the AI War beta version of your choice, which you can install by simply selecting via your Updates window in the game.

What's new since 3.038:
(Cumulative release notes since 3.000 are attached at the bottom)

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-Fixed the issue with the raid and leech starship mark levels being visually offset.

-AI Warp gates are now automatically destroyed when they are not on an AI planet.

-Previously units with IsScout set were having a lot of orders (FRD, etc) cleared when loading a game, fixed to not reset these.

-Changed negative shield boost text to be a bit clearer that it is a negative modifier.

-All of the various types of astro trains are now unable to be repaired.  This helps to mitigate their effects at least a tiny bit over the course of longer games.  They also no longer have bonuses against engineers.

-All enginers, cleanup drones, rebuilders, space tugs, mobile repair stations, transports, and colony ships are now immune to dark matter.  This makes them effectively invisible to astro trains.

-Amended perma-mine description to note that Cleanup drones can only remove them once you own the planet.

-Fixed Co-processor description line breaks to display better.

-Previously if AI ship was regenerated (e.g. by a regenerator train) it was being regen'd free-to-hunt-human-players even if killed by a minor faction ship (e.g. a Devourer) in the complete absence of human player ships.  Fixed so that there needs to be at least one human player ship on the planet for the freeing to take place.

-Previously if an AI ship was chasing a minor faction ship and moved beyond a certain distance from its guard poing, it would be freed to hunt the human players.  Fixed to not be thus freed unless there is at least one human player ship on the planet.

-Previously if an object was somehow created on the exact center of the planet (coordinates 0,0) it would behave very oddly (notably most shots would not progress towards them).  This typically only happened with cheat-created ships.  Fixed to make sure that objects are never added directly on 0,0.

-Previously ships towed through a wormhole were switching planets without changing location coordinates, resulting in very odd positions and very long tractor beams.  Fixed to set the location of the towed ship to the location of the towing ship after switching planets.

-Previously clicking the "reset all queues" button with some currently self-building units would scrap the self-building units.  Fixed so that reset does nothing to units still self-building.

-A stop command to a ship now also counts as a stop command to each of its modules (for the purpose of clearing preferred targets, for example).

-Rally posts no longer cost knowledge.

-Made Riot Control Starship forcefield module center on the ship instead of stick to the normal module attachment point.

-Made Riot Control Starship module construction non-assistable if the ship has been damaged in the past few seconds (same threshold as repairs).

-Overhauled cursor position detection to properly account for the window toolbar (if enabled) and window positions other than screen coordinate (0,0).

-Fortresses are now immune to Devourer golems.  Golems more hungry as a result.

-Previously Marauder Buzz Bombs were considering human ships as friendly when exploding (and thus not damaging them), fixed to consider them as enemy in that case.

-Previously, if an overly long name was entered for the profile, it would not be visible in the main menu.

-The Delete button on the Save and Load screens were previously showing up with gray text, which made them look disabled when they are not.  Changed to simply show these as white.

-In recent versions, there was an issue with the tooltips for showing the counts of how many ships players have on the planetary summary.  Fixed.

-Changed Impulse Reaction Emitter shots to have a maximum multiplier of 2500 (for ships that use 25,000 or more energy) so that they aren't so incredibly powerful against golems (where they could normally get a multiplier of 40,000+).

-Galaxy View Find Mode now displays the number of matching ships currently in transports in parentheses next to the normal counts.

CHANGES TO PAST PRERELEASES
=======

-Some changes to the recent efficiency improvements that improve efficiency further in a few areas, and accuracy in other key areas.

[jordot42]

-AI Warp gates are now automatically destroyed when they are not on an AI planet.

     Why this change?  I take it that there won't be a +10 AIP when this happens.  I haven't seen any complaints about this warp gate problem.

[keith.lamothe]

The AI progress will still happen, the change is because killing the command station without killing the warp gate is basically an exploit.  Feel free to try to change Chris's mind, though

[x4000]

Feel free to try to change Chris's mind, though

Normally I'm pretty open to being convinced, but being able to leave warp gates alive was never an intended strategy, and I can't see any use for that that isn't exploitative to a greater or lesser degree.

[Buttons840]

Perhaps if warp gates exploded once you actually claim the planet?  Or took a moderate amount of damage per second so that you could build, claim something like a ARS, scuttle the command station and leave the gate?

Really doesn't make any difference with my style of play though.

Great update.

I'm happy to report that I was able to experience the pure joy of watching a couple fortresses be eaten by a devouring golem, even though I didn't know this was possible.  I'm glad I got to see it before this patch.  

"Golems more hungry?"  Hmmm....    Perhaps my mark IV sandwiches will appease them?

[quickstix]

-Rally posts no longer cost knowledge.

Thanks. Astro Train stuff looks good too.

[jordot42]

The AI progress will still happen, the change is because killing the command station without killing the warp gate is basically an exploit.  Feel free to try to change Chris's mind, though

   

Actually you're right about the exploit thing.  In the games I've played, I've never found a compelling reason to kill a warp gate.  Unless you kill all the surrounding warpgates to said planet also, you can still get waves there.  So I've left every warp gate up to save the +10 AIP per planet.  At least so far, my turret defenses can handle all the warp waves that come in.   The only warpgates I've killed were on the level 4 planets next to AI homestations, since those act as reinforcement points.  

[Doddler]

I kind of understand the reason for it, although a lot of us are going to end up playing with a lot more AI progress than we were used to with this change!  I'd argue that it becomes a deterrrent for a player wanting to remove a command station from an AI system without the intention of taking the system for themselves (for example, if the system needs to be free to make a path between two systems).  Perhaps the warp gate could only be removed when the system becomes controlled by the player?

A bit off topic, but I've never quite understood why the AI homeworld adjascent systems have two warp gates.

[Echo35]

The AI progress will still happen, the change is because killing the command station without killing the warp gate is basically an exploit.  Feel free to try to change Chris's mind, though

   

Actually you're right about the exploit thing.  In the games I've played, I've never found a compelling reason to kill a warp gate.  Unless you kill all the surrounding warpgates to said planet also, you can still get waves there.  So I've left every warp gate up to save the +10 AIP per planet.  At least so far, my turret defenses can handle all the warp waves that come in.   The only warpgates I've killed were on the level 4 planets next to AI homestations, since those act as reinforcement points.  

I used to (Unless it was a high value planet) just leave the warp gates there and drop some turrets around them and never bother even looking at them again.

[Buttons840]

I just destroyed an AI command station and the warp gate remained?  So there was a sector with no command station, but it did have a gate.

Perhaps the warp gate is only destroyed once a human player attempts to build a command station in the same sector?

Another possible option would be to launch considerably larger waves against human systems which have a warp gate on them.  Say, 5x larger waves for leaving a warp gate in tact?  Just a thought.

[quickstix]

A bit off topic, but I've never quite understood why the AI homeworld adjascent systems have two warp gates.

They're a bit special. Unlike warp gate on normal planets, gates on Core Planets (as homeworld-adjacent planets are known) are able to recieve reinforcements. On normal planets, only command stations, wormholes and guard posts can recieve regular reinforcements.

[Doddler]

A bit off topic, but I've never quite understood why the AI homeworld adjascent systems have two warp gates.

They're a bit special. Unlike warp gate on normal planets, gates on Core Planets (as homeworld-adjacent planets are known) are able to recieve reinforcements. On normal planets, only command stations, wormholes and guard posts can recieve regular reinforcements.

Really?  In my recent games, the AI would re-inforce a warp gate with more ships on a normal system even if the command station is destroyed (until the point where the system has all the guard posts removed).  Also, I have an AI core system in my current game that I've colonized with a pair of warp gates that are doing a whole lot of nothing.

[Kjara]

I'll admit to not being a huge fan of the warpgate change, not only because it was supportive of my playstyle but because this gets rid of a choice a player had and shrinks the set of valid strategies.  While it was perhaps a bit too useful for isolated planets, by not killing warpgates in a connected section you were unable to make planets immune to raids, which meant that there was a drawback.

Two alternative suggestions(One I've posted before):  First make the warpgate only 5 aip and the command station 15 aip.  I might actually feel its worth gate raiding at 5 aip per gate and this makes you take at least 15 aip for taking a planet.

Second:  Make there be some additional penalty for owning a planet with a warpgate, perhaps something simple like 1.5x or 2x raids on that planet.

A bit off topic, but I've never quite understood why the AI homeworld adjascent systems have two warp gates.

They're a bit special. Unlike warp gate on normal planets, gates on Core Planets (as homeworld-adjacent planets are known) are able to recieve reinforcements. On normal planets, only command stations, wormholes and guard posts can recieve regular reinforcements.

Really?  In my recent games, the AI would re-inforce a warp gate with more ships on a normal system even if the command station is destroyed (until the point where the system has all the guard posts removed).  Also, I have an AI core system in my current game that I've colonized with a pair of warp gates that are doing a whole lot of nothing.

I'm pretty sure I've seen non homeworld-adjacent warp gates get reinforcements after the cs is down too.

[quickstix]

Might just be when the command station is destroyed then. To my knowledge, on a command station controlled AI planet warp gates don't reinforce (except Core planet warp gates that have the attribute).

[SgtScum]

-Rally posts no longer cost knowledge.





\o/

Knowledge is always so tight that I never unlocked it before but now you just made reinforcing a distant system whilst I concentrate on other things much much easier. Ty for the free micromanger slayer. 07