The latest beta is available via the Updates window in version 3.060 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 3.060 or greater, you can download 3.060
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 you can easily create your own manually-installable beta patch! Please note that current betas can only be successfully applied to version
3.060 of the game or later (if you later wish to revert to the official version for any reason, you can download the full raw files from the above link to do so).
To create your own manual beta patch, simply download these two files:
1.
Current Beta Director Xml File.
2.
Current Beta Zip File.
If you try to open that zip file, it will say it's corrupt -- that's okay, it's not really a zip file. 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. Please note that "Beta" in the filename is case-sensitive.
What's new since 3.082:(Cumulative release notes since 3.060 are attached at the bottom)
-------------------
-Transports:
Capacity from 100 to 200
Energy cost from 5000 to 10000
Metal/Crystal cost from 5000/3000 to 10000/6000
Now unloads a maximum of 10 ships per game second if out of supply, still unloads all if in supply or scrapped/destroyed.
Now loses 12.5% of max health when traversing a wormhole to a planet that is out-of-supply.
Now regens health very quickly (30 seconds from 1hp to full) when on a planet controlled by its team that is in supply.
-Riot Control Starship Riot Shield modules now automatically regenerate (fairly quickly, once the regen kicks in, which is unlikely while in actual combat).
-Core Warhead Interceptors are now non-capturable.
-The game now pops open the unhandled errors text file if it crashes, making it so players don't have to hunt that down in the rare cash of a crash.
-The game no longer preloads sounds, and now loads sounds in a more efficient way in general, which makes the game load vastly faster.
-The game now uses ClearTypeNatural text, which should make it look vastly better, though the font sizes had to be redone to a fair degree to make this work.
-Target list request throttling now counts minor faction ships completely separate from human and AI players, even if they internally share player numbers.
-Zenith Viral Shredders now display effective build points required to build (this exceeds the "normal" requirement when the number of shredders of that mark on that planet exceeds the ship cap) and a note if they lack sufficient health to replicate. The unit type description has also been updated to reflect the more complex replication rules implemented some time ago.
-Zenith Viral Shredder cost scaling changed from exponential to linear with percent-over-cap-on-planet. Will probably tune this back up in future prereleases.
-Added Heavy Beam Cannon MkIV, with a ship cap of 1, that costs 6000 knowledge, 250000 metal, 400000 crystal, 20000 energy, and worth every penny.
-Units placed because of auto-build control nodes (engr I,II,III and remains rebuilder nodes) now are more aggressively pushed away from potential collision with the command station or other objects nearby (notably, to prevent displacing a forcefield generator).
-Previously it was possible for a unit held in a tractor beam to displace a forcefield generator (or other object) regardless of other collision priorities. Forcefield generators now share the same level of non-displaceability as objects held in tractors and immobile objects.
-The MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit) network parameter is now configurable via the settings screen, right below the UDP port number.
-Unlock cost for Counter Dark Matter Turret reduced from 1125 to 1000 and for Lightning Turret MkIII reduced from 2200 to 2000. Since no other unlock cost was not a multiple of 250, these had an artificially inflated opportunity cost.
CHANGES TO PAST PRERELEASES
=======
-Heavy Beam Cannons now have 1.5x damage multiplier against starships.
-AI turret choice probabilities tweaked, particularly towards fewer Heavy Beam Cannons.
-In previous versions the aggregate targeting was not aggregating melee ships, fixed to aggregate them if within 200 * move_speed range.
-Fixed a divide by zero bug with heavy beam cannons firing at something right on top of them.
-AI will now not build Heavy Beam Cannon MkIIIs (just Is and IIs).
