Prerelease 3.111 (Border aggression changes, science labs+, bugfixes)

[x4000]

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 3.107:
(Cumulative release notes since 3.060 are attached at the bottom)

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

-Buying a Zenith Power Generator from the Zenith Trader now only requires 1.2 million metal/crystal instead of 1.6.

-The formula for the new "border aggression" AI Mechanic has been changed as follows:
Difficulty >= 10 = 3300 - ( AI Progress )
Difficulty >= 9 = 3600 - ( AI Progress )
Difficulty >= 8 = 3900 - ( AI Progress )
Difficulty >= 7 = 4100 - ( AI Progress / 2 )
Difficulty >= 6 = 4400 - ( AI Progress / 2 )
Difficulty >= 5 = 4600 - ( AI Progress / 2 )
Difficulty < 5 = 5500 - ( AI Progress / 2 )
More info on this here: http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Border_Aggression

-Mark II science labs now cost 24k metal instead of 20k, and 2.4k crystal instead of 2k, but they also now produce 2/s knowledge instead of 1/s.

-Mark I and II scince labs now move at speed 16 instead of 12/8, and they both are now immune to dark matter (and thus astro trains), and their build times have been halved.

-Advanced Research stations now require supply, but have a move speed of 12 instead of 6.  Their rate of knowledge production is also now 6/s instead of 4/s.

-Fixed a bug where ships killed by self-exploding units (like the Zenith Autobomb and lightning missile) were not triggering several normal on-death checks like negative-AI-progression (Data centers, Co-processors) and spawning ships (Zenith Reserve).

CHANGES TO PAST PRERELEASES
=======

-The Zenith Power Generator energy reduction was not actually working in the last release.  Fixed.

-In recent versions the Heavy Beam Cannon MkIII had 0 attack power due to a typo (and thus basically behaved like it had no weapons); fixed to have it's normal power.

-In recent versions the Super Terminal could not be attacked, fixed to respond to normal right-click attacks.

Updates in 3.109:

-Ships inside transports were disappearing when loading savegames in the last two versions.  Fixed.

Updates in 3.110:

-Simply using Manage Players to give a name to a Disabled player slot in a game now adds a new (but disabled) player to the game that can be controlled by the other human players.  The other methods for connecting new players who wish to "drop in" all still work as they previously did, but this allows for a group of players to add "allies" that are completely controlled by the rest of the team.

Updates in 3.111:

-Another slight increase to the econ in large multiplayer games.

[Mánagarmr]

Excellent changes all around! \O/

[keith.lamothe]

The border aggression mechanic sounds great, and I think it may provide the foundation for an interesting endgame scenario/plot later on

By the way, if it keys in on cold storage, is it possible for the player to bypass this by sneaking 30+ cloaked ships onto the planet (off in a corner somewhere) and thus removing all those ships from cold storage without really alerting them?  Would cold_storage + non_cold_storage_guarding be better?

[x4000]

The border aggression mechanic sounds great, and I think it may provide the foundation for an interesting endgame scenario/plot later on

Yeah, I'm excited about this one.  I think it will be the most notable expansion of the core AI capabilities since CPAs.  I have been looking for a concept for months, and this one just hit me last night.

By the way, if it keys in on cold storage, is it possible for the player to bypass this by sneaking 30+ cloaked ships onto the planet (off in a corner somewhere) and thus removing all those ships from cold storage without really alerting them?  Would cold_storage + non_cold_storage_guarding be better?

Well, that's a much more expensive check, because there's no easy aggregate for the guards, since that's an ongoing thing.  Players could get around this by having 50 cloaked military ships on a planet, but if they want to do that... I suppose that's their call as far as resource use goes.  That just means that if they were ever to have those ships leave or get killed, they're in for a mini-CPA thanks to that having built up higher over time.  And frankly it seems like an impractical use of ships over the long haul -- just snipping out a couple of command posts is sooo much simpler in almost all cases, I would guess (and lower risk).  If you think about it, it makes sense that if the AI is worried it stays home, or otherwise if not it goes on the attack.  But if this is something people feel like is abusive in practice, a change can certainly be made.

[keith.lamothe]

Ok, sounds good, just wondering if you'd anticipated that

[x4000]

Nope, I had not.

[x4000]

Updates in 3.109:

-Ships inside transports were disappearing when loading savegames in the last two versions.  Fixed.

[keith.lamothe]

Oh, I thought it was just a transport balance nerf

[x4000]

 

[Kjara]

Aww, I never got to abuse scout starship changes + advanced research labs to do deep knowledge raiding.  Ah well, its probably for the best .

I think I'm going to start having to play with the devourer golem off, since it really doesn't challenge the player that much if you pay attention(well anymore, back when it was releasing lots of core units at the 20 minute mark it was a big challenge --I mean the last few games its wandered through my home planet, and even though I had troops there, I don't use frd and generally keep them outside the path between the wormholes so it does exactly 0 damage to me.  Perhaps it should target transports(I seem to recall being able to run right by it with transports as well), and it wanders enough to make it difficult for the ai to build up enough to have any border aggression.

[Ozymandiaz]

Nice sciense lab changes. I like thoose .

[wyvern83]

How do you turn auto-explore on? I've tried the last few beta updates but I've never found it.

[keith.lamothe]

Auto-explore only applies in a game with show-unexplored-planets off.  To activate it select a scout(s) and press A+E+X (in reality it might be X+A+E or some other order, I don't think I coded the key-combination-recognition correctly on that yet), and after a couple seconds they should start peeling off to parts unknown.

[x4000]

Updates in 3.110:

-Simply using Manage Players to give a name to a Disabled player slot in a game now adds a new (but disabled) player to the game that can be controlled by the other human players.  The other methods for connecting new players who wish to "drop in" all still work as they previously did, but this allows for a group of players to add "allies" that are completely controlled by the rest of the team.

[x4000]

Updates in 3.111:

-Another slight increase to the econ in large multiplayer games.