Prerelease 3.143 (Paint attack fix, split selection across control groups)

[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 3.142:
(Cumulative release notes since 3.120 are here http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Current_Beta)

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

    * Added "Split Selection Across Control Groups" item to "Selection" context menu.
          o Check the Control Groups you want to split the selection across.
          o Check "Should Remove Units From Current Control Groups" if you want "Execute" to clear existing control group associations before adding the new associations.
          o Check "Should Pre-Clear Target Control Groups" if you want "Execute" to clear out the "target" control groups before adding the ships from your selection to them.
          o Click "Execute" when you're ready to perform the split; the split is done evenly by ship type, the same as L/Shift+L/"Select Percentage By Type".
          o In some cases this can be more useful than L/Shift+L/"Select Percentage By Type" because you don't have to manually reselect the other parts of the now-split-up group, but can use control group numbers instead.

    * In the previous version, Paint Attack was not restricting targets to enemy ships, fixed.

    * Paint Attack no longer changes preferred target type. 

[quickstix]

That's a cracker of an idea. There's some cool stuff happening with the new context menu.

Just a question, I think I may be missing the subtle difference here, but is the difference between the removing associations and clearing option that the former removes 'all' associations and the latter only clears out the 'target' groups?

[keith.lamothe]

It's a little tricky to make context menu item titles for some of those, but the difference is that:

- "Should Remove Units From Current Control Groups" removes the _ships in your selection_ from their control groups (regardless of whether those groups are checked on the context menu) so you don't wind up with them in multiple control groups after the operation.

- "Should Pre-Clear Target Control Groups" removes _all ships_ from the control groups you've checked via the menu before the operation, so that afterwards the only ships in those control groups are those currently in your selection.

Both require care in usage, particularly the second.

[danando]

NICE UPDATE  

[superking]

I think munition boosters should be disabled from appearing in monotype waves, they attack in very small numbers and acheive nothing. a better implementation of the booster types might be that if the AI has them unlocked then it always sends a few in with other wave types (in the same way the bomber always includes bomber starships in its waves).

[lanstro]

Another thing that would go well in the context menu is the 'selection/deselection by marks' options: so 'select only mark 1s', and/or 'exclude mark 1s from selection'.

[x4000]

New version: http://arcengames.com/forums/index.php/topic,5441.0.html