Note: as of version 3.145, these betas contain BOTH new networking code as well as arithmetic overflow checking. See that link 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 3.144 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 3.146:(Cumulative release notes since 3.120 are here
http://arcengames.com/mediawiki/index.php?title=AI_War_-_Current_Beta)
-------------------
* Auto-explore is now non-random and much more even in deciding between equidistant planets of the same level of "I need to scout this". So if you have 5 unexplored (or unscouted, in an everything-starts-explored game) planets connected to your home world and build 10 scouts there and put them on auto-explore, 2 each will go to each of those 5 planets. At least, that's the idea.
* Fixed bug in paint-attack implementations that was preventing the attack-target-set sound from playing in previous prereleases.
* Added "Give Resources" item to X+right-click context menu:
o Check the players you want to give to (you can give to more than one player at once, but it gives the designated amount to each, not the total split amongst them).
o Left-click and Right-click the metal/crystal amounts to increase/decrease them (left = increase, right = decrease). Normal clicks are units of 1,000, ctrl-clicks are units of 10,000, alt-clicks are units of 100,000.
o Left-click "Execute" to send the resources. It will add a note in the chat log of the amounts actually given (you can't give more than you have, etc).
* Fixed divide-by-zero bug (which manifested as an arithmetic overflow) in CustomScrollbarVertical and CustomScrollbarHorizontal.
* Added "Use non-Cleartype Fonts" checkbox to the graphics tab of the settings menu.
Updates in 3.148: * MkIV scout now no longer evades after exiting a wormhole.
* Fixed arithmetic overflow relating to the devourer golem's auto-target logic.
Updates in 3.149: * Some of the internal calculations for how ships wait at wormholes have been reworked, in hopes of making them never get accidentally stuck in cold storage or stuck just waiting permanently at a wormhole.
o For super-high AI Progress games there was a check in particular that was causing issues here.
o Freed AI ships are now vastly more effective at traveling between their own planets in fluid groups now.
* AI players are no longer allowed to reinforce their planets if there are more than 175,000 ships currently in the game.
* A semi-major new "Scrap Wave" mechanic has been added for the AIs. Any time there are more than 150,000 ships currently in the game, and comparably little is going on in terms of threat/attack/wave counters, the AI will scrap a large number of its ships and then send a wave that is half the size of the number of ships scrapped.
o The AI is prejudiced toward scrapping and sending the lowest-tech mobile military it has, but that will really vary based on what it has available. If all the AI has is Mark V stuff, this will be a much worse event than if the AI still has a lot of lower-tech stuff.
o In general, the size of these waves is 1,000 ships multiplied times the difficulty of the first AI player. The number of scrapped ships will be about twice that.
o Generally if there are more than about 1,000 threat/attack/wave ships already out in the galaxy, then the AI won't do a scrap wave. Otherwise it will do continuously scrap waves, one after the next, until it is back down to fewer than 150,000 ships.
o In the end, if you're like most AI War players you'll never-ever see this mechanic at all. But if you've got a beast of a machine and love playing 30+ hour-long games on the largest maps, then this will help keep things from bogging down completely.
