Note: this version contains BOTH new networking code as well as arithmetic overflow checking. See below for the possible consequences to both. We really appreciate any errors you report on these, as they are both notable changes, but the intent is for them both to lead to long-term better performance and fewer errors in a few niche areas in general. Already that seems to be the case, but as with any major change of this sort, there is some risk of making things worse for a brief time before they get better.
If you're worried about it, best thing to do is back up your copy of AIWar.exe and AIWar.pdb from 3.145 or 3.120 or whatever before you upgrade to 3.145. That way if you do run into a show-stopper, you can always report it, revert to the older build, and keep playing. Hopefully there will be no showstoppers, but there you go.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 3.144:(Cumulative release notes since 3.120 are here
http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Current_Beta)
-------------------
* Some internal networking changes have been made as the start of phasing in a new, more memory-efficient network/savegame format over time. These first changes add a very slight bit of memory/CPU efficiency on the game host, including in single-player games, but mostly they are laying the groundwork for more extensive future changes.
* Added "Create Construction Template" context menu item for when you have a selection including a unit eligible for construction templates (basically anything that can be direct-built by a command station; note that this includes engineers so be careful when box-selecting turret balls that have engineers assisting or repairing):
o Click "Set Title" to bring up the text entry box, enter a title, and click "OK".
o Click "Execute" to actually create the template and add it to your list (note that these are stored per-player, on the local machine, not in the save file).
* Added "Build From Construction Template" context menu item for when you have a command station or mobile builder selected:
o Assuming you have defined construction templates, it will list each one (it will note which ones you lack tech for, or which ones require a different sort of builder though that should not happen in the current setup), and you can click one to "load" it into normal ship-placement-mode, then move your mouse around and place it like you would place an individual direct-build unit.
o If you want to delete a template, click "Go To Template-Deletion Menu", then click the desired template (note that you will not be prompted for confirmation here; the confirmation is the fact that you went to the menu, so be careful).
* Existing "counter-shot radius" drawing logic (which also draws tractor range, tachyon range, etc) will now draw engineering range if the ship has one and does not have a counter-shot or other auxiliary range.
* Multi-place mode (arc-place or template-place) will now use the non-filled dotted-line circle for counter-shot/tractor/etc ranges (only on sets greater than 1, same as with attack range drawing in these cases).
* Fixed two internal overflow exceptions that previously could potentially have caused desyncs.
o Both of these also lead to some small speed boost, especially for games that are already running very fast.
* At least for now, arithmetic overflow checking is now enabled.
o This may cause a tiny performance hit, but in our testing it has been all but unnoticeable.
o More importantly, this will cause the game to crash whenever an arithmetic overflow is encountered.
+ This is annoying if it happens, but far less annoying than having the game do something really wrong (like eat all your metal) and/or desync if such an overflow is encountered.
+ These sorts of overflows should be super rare, if you run into them at all, and the reason for our having enabled this is so that we can clean out any that might be hiding in the code causing issues.
+ If you run into this sort of crash, simply posting your UnhandledExceptions.txt file will let us fix the issue with comparable ease compared to if the overflow went silently as part of the simulation, as in the past.
Updates in 3.146: * Fixed an overflow exception when ships with more than 2 billion combined health were selected together.
* Tugs are now blind, to prevent uberscouting.
* Fixed a couple of potential overflow exceptions related to focus firing (these may have contributed to desyncs in prior versions).
